Coming out from the Shadows
by taylaca
Summary: Arthur teams up with the mighty sorcerer Emrys. They face difficulties while trying to legalize magic and new enemies threaten everything they hold dear. Post-reveal. A sequel to Seeing Through the Shadows and Behind the Shadows. Can be read alone.
1. Chapter 1 – The Laundry

**Story Setup (if you haven't read parts 1 and 2 please read this):****  
****I recommend reading the first two parts of this series before this one, however it is not necessary. For anyone starting with this one, here is a summary of the setup from the previous stories: The first story begins after season 4 episode 7 (The Secret Sharer) so the end of season 4 and season 5 from the show have not happened in this timeline. Arthur and Gwen know about Merlin. Everyone else in Camelot knows that a sorcerer named Emrys has a secret identity and lives in the castle and that he saved Arthur and Camelot twice. When Merlin appears as Emrys, he wears a cloak that is enchanted so that his face is always hidden in shadows, his voice is changed, and the cloak cannot be removed by anyone but himself. **

**Chapter 1 – The Laundry**

Merlin looked at Arthur's nice clean socks that he had just spent the past hour washing. They were perfectly white. So clean. Too clean.

Merlin dumped them onto the floor and ground them around with the bottom of his boots until they were covered in dirt. He grinned and dumped the filthy socks back into the washing basin. That should keep him here for a while longer.

Merlin was halfway through washing the socks a second time when the door opened and a red-haired maid entered carrying a basket of clothes.

Finally, Merlin thought to himself. He was starting to think he would have to wash the socks a third time.

If he had known that she wouldn't be here until this late he would have spent more time in the library this morning. However, having completed his self-assigned work in the library, he had decided not to hang around in case he was questioned, as he so often was, as to what a servant was doing spending so much time looking at books. Still, it would have been better than repeatedly washing the same socks.

He had started doing the washing earlier than he had planned, considering that providing Arthur with clean socks was not his main objective for being here. His task in the library had taken less time than he had thought it would, since Geoffrey de Monmouth had been asleep at his desk so there had been no one around to observe as Merlin had magically inserted several new pages into several key history books.

"Hi, Lydia," he said casually.

"Hey, Merlin," she said, sitting next to him and piling some clothes from her basket into a washing basin beside his, "still washing King Arthur's socks? You're usually done by now."

"Yeah, he went trampling through the forest yesterday and took his boots off. It took me ages to do just that one pair. He's always so fussy about there being even a speck of dirt on them when I give them back to him and yet he doesn't care about walking around in socks caked in dirt when he's already wearing them."

Lydia leaned in towards Merlin, a gleam in her eyes, and asked, "And what was the king doing out in the forest with no boots on? Was the queen out there with him? You must have heard about Sir Ector and the lady Trianna. I daresay he came back to Camelot with dirty socks after that little escapade. You must know better than anyone what the king and queen get up to on their little jaunts into the forest."

Merlin suppressed a grin, she had given him the perfect segue into the topic that he had been hanging around to discuss. Lydia was the biggest gossip in the castle and anything she heard was certain to be general knowledge throughout Camelot within days. Merlin had used this to his advantage on several previous occasions. It was especially easy for him, since she was always so interested in everything he had to say given his proximity to the castle's favourite topics for gossip, including the king and queen themselves. This time he was going to have to be particularly cautious though, because he would rather not have this rumor traced back to him.

"No, Gwen wasn't there. He was out hunting with me and he took his boots off because he thought it would help him walk more quietly to sneak up on animals. It didn't help though, since he missed the deer by a mile. I'm pretty sure his no-boots thing backfired and the deer heard him sneaking around, but he claims that it was the sun gleaming off of the sword in the stone that blinded him and caused him to miss."

"The sword in the stone?" asked Lydia, sounding curious.

"Oh you know, the sword in the stone, everyone's been talking about it," Merlin said with a calculated air of casualness.

"Of course," said Lydia hurriedly, "I was just wondering why the king was hunting in that area."

Merlin concentrated on looking down at the socks he was scrubbing for a moment to make sure Lydia did not detect any sign of the victorious grin that was threatening to cross his face. Lydia prided herself on always being the first to know everything in Camelot. She would never admit now that this was the first time she was hearing about the sword in the stone.

"Well, we were in the forest of Ascetir and Arthur was determined to get off the trails and start shooting things as fast as possible. And if you leave the trail after the first thicket and stick to the low ground so the animals can't see you, you're pretty much guaranteed to stumble through the sword's clearing at some point."

"Naturally," she said as though she had been there herself. "I just thought it was unusual to be hunting in a clearing. Especially that clearing."

Merlin had to give credit to her acting skills and her ability to pick up on details and probe for more without sounding like she wasn't privy to the information herself.

"Yeah it does rather ruin the sense of ceremony," he said, enjoying the look on her face as she drank in his every word, "but he probably hasn't even read the legends. History never was his strong point."

"Have you read them?"

"I went to the library and skimmed through the version in The History of the Kings of Camelot when I heard people talking about it just to see what it was all about. Pretty neat stuff."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I was just saying to Mildred," replied Lydia happily.

Merlin could practically hear her mentally planning her own covert trip to the library. Lydia was one of the few servants in the castle who could read, although she kept that particular talent a secret from almost everyone. It was very advantageous to a gossip if nobles took no pains to hide confidential papers while she was around because they were under the assumption that she couldn't read them. Merlin was pretty sure she had picked up the skill so quickly simply due to the time she spent snooping through her mistress' papers.

He tossed the last sock into the pile of clean clothes and said, "Looks like I'm done. Have fun with your washing."

As he left the room he finally allowed a grin to spread across his face. It was nice to occasionally plan ahead and he had just planted a seed that he was certain would be invaluable one day.

For now, Merlin returned to Arthur's chambers, dumped the basket of socks on the table and sat down to write Arthur's speech for an upcoming feast.

He had only gotten through the introduction when Arthur came in covered in sweat and panting.

"Hard training session was it?" Merlin asked.

"The knights needed it. They're getting lazy," Arthur said as he dumped his armor in a pile on the floor.

Then he saw the basket of clean socks sitting on the table.

"Oh good, you did my socks. These ones are disgusting."

Arthur pulled off the socks he was wearing and chucked them at Merlin, who had glanced down at the speech at just the wrong moment and received a face full of sweaty sock.

"Uck," Arthur cried, as he picked up a sock from the pile and dropped it immediately. "These are all wet!"

Merlin, who was currently wiping Arthur's foot-sweat off of his face with his sleeve, was less than sympathetic.

"Well I just washed them!"

"And you couldn't have dried them?!"

"I was going to do it later."

"Well do it now! I need socks!"

"Well you'll just have to do without for a while. It will be several hours until they are dry even after I hang them out."

"Then just dry them using…" Arthur paused to look round to make sure that they were alone before finishing that sentence, but instead of saying the word he had been intending to, he gave a surprised yelp of, "Guinevere!"

Merlin looked over. Gwen was standing in the doorway, giving Arthur a rather disapproving look.

She shut the door.

"Were you about to ask Merlin to use magic to dry your socks?"

"Uhm," said Arthur, looking like he didn't know what the right answer to that question was.

Gwen sighed, "Really Arthur, don't you think that it is unfair?"

Arthur looked really confused and Merlin was glad because that meant that he wasn't the only one who didn't know what she was talking about. He didn't understand why Gwen was suddenly averse to him drying Arthur's socks with magic. Sure it was illegal and most people were terrified of sorcery, but Gwen had accepted Merlin for who he was and what he could do. It wouldn't be the first time he had used magic in front of her and she had never objected before. Besides, she had called it "unfair", which was a strange word to use. Did she think it was unfair to other people who had to wait for their socks to dry the slow way?

"How is it unfair?" asked Arthur, mirroring Merlin's thoughts.

"Well he is a powerful sorcerer, and you just have him washing your socks."

Merlin blinked. She thought it was unfair to him?

Arthur looked at Merlin, who looked back and shook his head slightly to indicate that he didn't understand what Gwen was on about either.

"Well that is his job," Arthur said reasonably.

"Don't you think that maybe he deserves better than being a servant?"

Merlin had never thought of that. And from the look of it neither had Arthur. Merlin was Arthur's servant. He just was.

Arthur was looking at Merlin as though he was seeing him for the first time.

"Um, I don't mind," said Merlin sheepishly. He was a little unnerved by the look Arthur was giving him.

"I could make him one of my councillors," suggested Arthur.

That did not sound like much of a promotion to Merlin.

"What?! I don't want to have to sit through all your council sessions and discuss regulations and taxes and other bureaucracy with old men!"

"Not even if you were appointed Court Sorcerer?" Arthur asked shrewdly.

That gave Merlin pause. The idea of doing magic being his actual job was thrilling, even if the thought of being widely known as a sorcerer made the part of him that had been taught secrecy since birth want to run and hide. It wasn't as if he had never imagined such a thing before, but it had always been a far off dream. To hear Arthur actually say it filled him with excitement. However, there was one rather major thing that Arthur seemed to be forgetting.

"You should probably legalize magic first," Merlin pointed out.

Arthur did not look dissuaded. In fact he was looking suddenly quite excited about something.

"I've just had an idea," he said.

Arthur started pacing back and forth, clearly thinking very hard about something.

"Well," prodded Merlin, wondering if Arthur was actually planning to share this idea of his.

When Arthur did not immediately reply and continued pacing and thinking, Merlin had to suppress the urge to point out how long it was taking for Arthur to have a single idea. It was tempting, but they were talking about legalizing magic and Merlin didn't want to distract Arthur from the topic.

There had been a time when Merlin had hardly dared to hope that Arthur would still consider him a friend when he found out who he really was. And now, not only had Arthur accepted him in spite of his magic, he had fully embraced that side of Merlin and was nearly as enthusiastic as Merlin himself in the cause of ending the persecution of magic users. Merlin couldn't help smiling as he remembered how much things had changed.

"We need to make people see that magic is not evil," Arthur said at last.

Merlin would have thought that much was obvious. Was that Arthur's brilliant breakthrough? Changing the laws was only made difficult by the hatred and fear of magic that plagued the kingdom. Changing the laws suddenly in the current climate would cause panic and possibly rebellion. If they could make people learn to trust magic, legalizing it would be simple. It was doing it that was the problem.

"We need to give them an example of a good sorcerer," Arthur continued.

"Like who?"

Arthur and Gwen both stared at Merlin and he suddenly understood what Arthur was implying.

"What?" Merlin choked. "You can't tell them about me!"

"Not you," Arthur said, "Emrys. The people already know that there is a sorcerer in disguise living in the castle. And they know that you saved me from Rothgard and broke Morgana's curse. If Emrys was to appear again and people started to realize that he is on our side, they might not be so frightened of magic as a whole."

"It is a good idea," Gwen said, catching on to Arthur's excitement. "People are afraid of the unknown. If they see Emrys and get to know him it would change everything."

Merlin stared at his two friends. He could not deny that it was a good idea, but the thought of playing such a public role was currently making his stomach turn. He would never have thought of such a plan himself – he was too used to working under the assumption that his involvement would be only in the shadows. But he had always had faith in Arthur's ability to rule Camelot however he wanted, including legalizing magic. And here he was, offering Merlin the opportunity to help make that possible.

"Can you do it?" asked Arthur.

This was probably his best chance to make people see that magic can be used for good. He simply couldn't refuse.

"I'll get the cloak," he said cheekily.

**Notes **

**This story features a wider range of POVs than my previous ones with only just over half of the chapters being Arthur's POV. It just worked out better for this story that way. I love using Arthur to react to everything but this time the story I wanted to tell would have been impossible to write entirely from Arthur's POV.**

**I'm so sorry that it took well over 3 years for me to finally finish this story. It got shelved a lot of the time but I was determined to never abandon it. I feel bad for any original readers of my story for making you all wait so long. Everything is written now and I'm just doing a final read-through chapter by chapter. I'll try to get it all uploaded quickly. This story is the conclusion to my trilogy so I promise there will be no more waiting. **


	2. Chapter 2 – The Alliance

**Chapter 2 – The Alliance**

Arthur sat on his throne with Guinevere at his side. The full council had been summoned and the throne room was packed with knights, councillors, nobles and servants. Arthur could feel the tension in the air and it was making him nervous despite being one of the few people in the room who knew for certain that they had nothing to fear from the visitor they were expecting.

A proclamation had been sent throughout the castle, inviting Emrys to come forward at noon on this day in the throne room, in order to form an alliance and sign a treaty with Arthur. Of course, that had been only for the sake of pageantry as Arthur did not want it known that he had any other way of contacting Emrys.

The councillors had been horrified when Arthur first suggested this alliance. They had claimed it was unlawful to treat with a criminal in Camelot. Arthur had pointed out at that point, that Emrys had not committed treason or any other crime other than sorcery. He reminded them that since he had passed the law reducing the sentences of certain crimes previously punished by death, including sorcery, the punishment for that crime was to be determined on a case-by-case basis by the king. Arthur had ruled on the spot that, in light of Emrys' actions, he would be granted a pardon for his past and future crimes against the laws banning sorcery. He also ruled that no punishments would be given out to anyone found consorting with sorcerers, stating that since Emrys was someone who lived in Camelot, likely half the city was technically guilty of that by now.

The councillors had been rather shocked by that, but could hardly argue that Arthur hadn't acted within the law. Arthur had tried, with help from Gaius, to convince the councillors that Emrys' deeds in defending Camelot proved that he could be a trusted ally and that his powers would make him an invaluable asset to the kingdom. However, it wasn't until he had pointed out that forming an alliance with him may be the only way to prevent him from becoming a dangerous foe that enough of the councillors had gotten on board to go through with the plan.

Some of them were now looking like they were regretting their decision as they stood restlessly, preparing to meet the sorcerer. Even those who had been certain that he would not answer the summons were looking rather pale.

The knights were looking much less gormless than the councillors, although they were alert and watchful. Occasionally their hands would twitch towards their swords, as though they were prepared to draw them at the slightest provocation.

Arthur just hoped that no one would notice that the king's manservant was not in attendance.

The doors opened and the room fell so silent that Arthur was sure everyone must be holding their breaths. A cloaked figure strode into the room, approaching the throne. The people he passed looked on him with fear and Arthur remembered the first time he had met Emrys, before he knew it was just Merlin beneath the cloak. He too had been intimidated by the unnatural shadows of the enchanted cloak that hid the face beneath the hood, and the knowledge that this man could end his life with a single thought. If Arthur didn't know that Emrys was the same man who washed his socks and scrubbed his floors, he imagined the sight of the cloaked man striding through the hall, his footsteps echoing in the silence, would have been quite impressive. Arthur just hoped that Merlin didn't trip over his own cloak or something equally clumsy. It would rather ruin the image.

Arthur rose from his throne as Merlin drew near.

"Emrys," he said formally, "it is an honour to have you here."

"I thank you for your invitation, King Arthur," Merlin replied equally formally, his voice distorted by the enchantment on his cloak. "The honour is all mine, that you would seek to make an alliance with me."

"I have had my scribes draw up a treaty," Arthur said, holding out a scroll. "If you agree with the terms, we can sign it forthwith."

Merlin took the scroll that Arthur presented to him and read it. Or at least he pretended to read it. Seeing as how Merlin had written most of it himself, Arthur doubted he was actually bothering to read it properly now. It wasn't like anyone could tell with his face hidden.

"This sounds agreeable to me," Merlin said after a moment.

Arthur gestured for a ceremonial podium, a quill and a sealing wax candle to be brought forward.

Merlin handed the scroll back to Arthur, who signed it with a flourish, dripped wax below his signature and sealed it with the royal seal.

Merlin took the quill from Arthur and signed the name Emrys beside Arthur's. Since he had no seal, after dripping wax below his name he waved his hand over it and an ornate letter E appeared in place of a seal. Arthur heard a collective intake of breath, indicating that a large number of people in the room were near enough to see what he had done.

Arthur and Merlin both stood away from the document and Guinevere stood from her throne and started clapping. Slowly, the gathered crowd joined in.

When the applause died down, Arthur addressed the crowd, "With this treaty signed, Emrys has agreed to make his talents available to the people of Camelot who have need of him. I encourage any of you who have need of his assistance to bring such matters to me."

Merlin stepped forward and also spoke to the people assembled, "I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to prove myself and I promise I will aid Camelot in any way that I can."

Merlin turned to Arthur, "King Arthur, whenever you have need of my services, light a beacon in the courtyard and I will come to you."

"I will do so, and I look forward to our next meeting," Arthur replied.

"Then I will take my leave of you for now, your majesty," Merlin said.

Arthur nodded and Merlin bowed deeply to him, before turning and walking out through the doors he had come in. The moment he left, Arthur felt the atmosphere of the room relax. Many of the people around the room were looking relieved and astonished, as though they hadn't expected to get through that encounter alive.

Arthur could see Gaius smiling though, and had to work to keep his own face looking solemn. They had taken the first dive. As frightened as people were of this new development, they would surely see in time that they had nothing to fear and much to gain from Emrys.

* * *

The first request for help from Emrys came several weeks later. Arthur had been wondering by that point whether anyone was actually going to take him up on the offer and was therefore surprised when he was addressing the people's concerns and a familiar-looking cobbler from the lower town came to him and begged him to summon Emrys.

"What do you require of him?" Arthur asked, suppressing his excitement that someone was finally willing to put their faith in the mysterious sorcerer.

"My mother is ill, Sire," he replied, "I have been to every physician, apothecary, and herbalist within the kingdom. I have spent every spare penny on medicines and still she suffers. Please, Sire, I believe Emrys may be my only hope to heal her."

Then Arthur remembered why he recognized the man. It was the cobbler who had been caught cheating on his taxes in order to buy medicines for his mother. After Morgana's curse had been lifted, Arthur had cancelled the execution she had sentenced him to and instead insisted that he pay what he owed and let him go with a warning not to do it again.

If Merlin cured his mother it would be a perfect example of how magic could be used for good. Not to mention it would save the life of the woman and stop the poor man being continuously swindled by people selling useless remedies.

Arthur turned to Merlin and said, "Light the beacon."

As Merlin nodded and left the room, fearful murmurs broke out, which Arthur silenced as he spoke again "Go to your mother. When Emrys answers the summons, I will bring him to you."

The man left looking both frightened and relieved.

That night Merlin had stayed up all night reading some book, because apparently he didn't actually know how to cure myistalgia, which according to Gaius was what was wrong with the cobbler's mother. Fortunately the pages of what looked like gibberish to Arthur must have been useful to Merlin, because the next day he claimed that he would be able to cure the woman.

The councillors nearly jumped out of their boots when Emrys walked in to the council chambers at the end of the meeting the next morning.

"You summoned me," he said, bowing to Arthur.

Arthur explained to him about the cobbler's sick mother as though he knew nothing about it. Then, with several guards, he escorted him into the lower town to visit the cobber's home. Arthur had thought it best if he went along in case there was any trouble.

The streets were far emptier than Arthur had ever seen them. He could see eyes peering out of windows as the party moved down the street. The few people who were outside ran away as they saw Emrys coming. He had heard reports from the guards that hardly anyone had been coming out of their homes after the beacon had been lit but he hadn't realized that it was this extreme.

Suddenly Arthur caught a movement in the deserted street out of the corner of his eye. A young boy, who looked no older than ten, darted out from behind a barrel. He was holding a sword that was far too big for him with both hands and was running straight for them. With a loud cry that would have sounded more intimidating if it hadn't been so high-pitched, he threw the sword with surprising accuracy at Merlin. Merlin lifted a hand and the sword stopped in mid-air and fell to the ground harmlessly. The boy gave another would-be war cry and lunged physically at Merlin. Arthur grabbed him before he made contact, easily holding the struggling boy back.

Then he heard a distressed voice shout, "Peter!"

Arthur turned and saw a woman running out of a house, looking terrified. She fell to the ground before them and begged, "Please, forgive him! He is just a boy! He has silly dreams of being a knight! I swear it will not happen again. I should have taught him better. If you must punish someone, punish me!"

"Do not fear," Arthur said reassuringly, "there will be no punishment for this."

The woman looked at Arthur in surprise before turning back to Merlin, and Arthur suddenly realized that she had not been addressing him.

"Don't worry," said Merlin, sounding surprised, as if he had also just come to the same realization, "I'm not going to do anything to him."

The woman was visibly relieved.

Merlin turned to the boy named Peter, "That was a brave thing you did. You'll be a great knight someday. Just – save it for an actual enemy next time."

The boy, who had stopped struggling and had looked rather shamefaced when the woman – presumably his mother – had come out, perked up when Merlin said that he would be a great knight and was now staring at him with something like awe.

The woman looked back and forth between the boy and Merlin in shock for a moment before bowing again and saying, "Thank you for your mercy and your prophecy, my Lord."

Prophecy? Arthur was almost certain that Merlin could not actually see the boy's future and when he said that the boy would one day be a great knight he was just trying to be encouraging. However he decided not to point this out.

Merlin also didn't say anything and Arthur imagined he was probably quite shocked at how the woman and her son had interpreted his words. Or possibly he had been stunned into silence when the woman had addressed him as "my Lord". It had certainly sounded absurd to Arthur.

Arthur let go of the boy and the woman hastily stood up and pulled him into the house she had come out of. Just before the door closed, Arthur heard the boy's voice say, "See, Mom, I'm _destined_ to be a knight."

They were not stopped again and when they arrived at the cobbler's house, the man ushered them nervously in and led them to a woman lying on a bed.

"What ails you?" Merlin asked her.

"I am in constant pain," she replied. "I can barely sleep for the agony I am in."

"Where does it hurt?"

"All over my body."

"Don't worry," Merlin said reassuringly, "I can help you."

Merlin laid his hands on the sick woman and chanted the longest spell Arthur had ever heard. When he finished she sat up on the bed, the expression on her face having changed from a grimace to a look of wonder.

"I haven't felt like this in years! The pain – it's all gone!"

She stood up and hugged her son, who was laughing in relief.

Arthur couldn't help smiling himself at their happiness and at Merlin's success.

Reports of her miraculous recovery spread throughout the castle and lower town and the next day four people came forward, asking for Emrys to cure a sick loved one.

Arthur had to put up with a messy room and get Guinevere to dress him while Merlin worked himself to exhaustion studying more medicinal magic.

Apparently every kind of sickness and injury required its own complex spell to cure it and Merlin had simply never had the time or reason to learn more than the basics before. Fortunately, Gaius was able to tell Merlin ahead of time what illnesses people had so when he showed up to help them he could cure them in an instant and keep up the image of the all-power sorcerer. They didn't see the hours of reading and practicing he did beforehand.

Within a week he had cured a dozen medical complaints and was near the point of collapse. Fortunately, the requests slowed down after the first wave. Arthur figured that everyone who had an illness Gaius couldn't cure had come forward as soon as they saw other people being healed and now there weren't any sick people left in Camelot. At least not any who were in need of, or willing to use magic.

Their plan had certainly worked well though. People were starting to associate Emrys with a source of healing and miracles rather than as a threat.

After the first couple times, the people did not even bother hiding in their houses when the beacon was lit. People would stop and stare as Emrys passed them on the street, walking beside the king and surrounded by guards, but they no longer ran away in fear.

Over the next few months people would occasionally ask Arthur to summon Emrys for various things and Arthur found that he sometimes had to deny their requests. He would send Merlin to heal the sick, save dying crops and stop magical creatures attacking villages. But he had refused the man who had asked Arthur to summon Emrys to build a house for him, the man who had wanted Emrys to make him taller, the woman who had wanted Emrys to recommend her pottery shop to people, and every other ridiculous request that had not been what Arthur had in mind when he had said that Emrys would aid the people of Camelot.

At least it seemed like people were getting used to the idea of magic being a positive thing.

One day Arthur was slogging through a pile of dull reports when a guard urgently knocked on his door and informed him that a house in the lower town was on fire. All of the people had been evacuated but the weather had been so dry lately that the building material was practically kindling and they couldn't collect water from the pumps fast enough to combat it.

Arthur's first thought was that he needed to call Emrys, but by the time he lit the beacon and waited it would be too late. But then he remembered that the usual wait for Emrys to answer his summons was only a ruse and what he needed to do was find Merlin.

"Light the beacon!" he said to the guard for appearances sake, and then ran to Gaius' chambers.

However Merlin was not there. Instead, Arthur was informed by Gaius that Merlin had burst in a moment ago, grabbed the cloak and left with no explanation. Arthur turned and ran, heading for the town. Merlin must already know about the fire.

When Arthur arrived he found four adjoining houses aflame. The fire must have spread quickly. There were more houses nearby just waiting to go up as well. If this wasn't stopped, the whole street of houses could be wiped out. A crowd of people filled the other side of the street, watching the scene in horror.

Then Arthur caught sight of Merlin, in his cloak, running towards the fire. The gathered people seemed to only just notice him and Arthur heard several exclamations of, "Emrys!"

Merlin must have only just arrived a moment before Arthur. Either he was delayed by having to duck somewhere hidden to put on the cloak or Arthur had simply run faster.

Merlin held out both hands towards the nearest house and shouted, "Acwence tha bælblysse!"

The flames encasing the house began to recede into themselves and vanish. Arthur was reminded of how Emrys had put out the fire that had been started when he was tied to a pyre. However this was on a much more massive scale.

Merlin made a slow sweeping motion with his hands, directing them along the line of houses. The fire disappeared along with his motion until the last flames in the last house were snuffed out. The fire had been put out in seconds and all that remained were four charred houses in a row of untouched ones.

Merlin turned around to face the crowd of people that had been watching the scene. There was a moment of silence and then, to Arthur's intense surprise, every person standing on the street burst into spontaneous and enthusiastic applause.

* * *

The incident with the fire had confirmed what Arthur had suspected – that the people had accepted Emrys as an ally, even a hero, despite being taught for years that those who practiced magic were irredeemably evil.

Arthur knew the feeling. After all, Emrys had changed his mind about magic, even before he knew that Emrys was Merlin. There was just something about him.

Arthur was seriously thinking that it was about time to legalize magic now. The law he had passed allowing him to determine the punishment for the crime of sorcery gave him the freedom to declare an end to the ban whenever he wanted, without a vote of the council on the matter. Arthur was just wondering if he should discuss it with the council beforehand anyways, when a guard knocked on his door and announced that there was a large party riding towards Camelot which appeared to contain members of royalty and was bearing four different flags.

Arthur asked for a description of the flags as he rushed to assemble a greeting party. He couldn't quite place them until he heard that one of the emblems was a white dragon. He recalled from his education in various crests of noble houses that the white dragon was the symbol of King Vortigern. It had always stood out in his mind because of its similarity to his own emblem in almost every aspect except colour. But that must mean that the approaching parties were the four allied kings of the north.

Directly north of Camelot, lay the kingdom of Essetir, which was ruled by King Lot. North of Lot's kingdom, there were four smaller allied kingdoms ruled by Kings Vortigern, Ban, Bors and Claudas. Or so Arthur had heard. He had never met any of the four kings before and as their kingdoms did not border Camelot, there had historically been few dealings between them of any kind. As such, Arthur couldn't begin to guess why they were suddenly paying him a surprise visit.

He had just enough time to gather together an impressive assembly of knights and several key staff members to greet the kings as they arrived at the castle steps. Arthur could easily pick out the four kings, since they rode at the front of their formations, save for the flag bearers, and wore their crowns prominently. They were each followed by about a dozen men and the occasional woman wearing their colours.

"Welcome to Camelot," Arthur called to them.

"It is an honour to meet you King Arthur," one of the kings replied.

Arthur guessed that it must be King Claudas who had answered him. Vortigern was clearly the man under the flag of the white dragon. And Arthur remembered enough of the reports from other kingdoms to know that Ban and Bors were brothers. King Ban, as the eldest, had inherited his father's kingdom, while King Bors had married the eldest daughter and heir to a neighbouring kingdom and become a king in his own right. Arthur could see that, apart from the man who must be Vortigern, two of the remaining kings were young, blond and so similar looking it was not hard to see that they must be brothers. The king who had spoken on the other hand, with his black hair and thick beard tinged with streaks of grey, was most certainly not related to either of them.

"It is an honour to have you here," Arthur replied, "May I ask what has brought you to my kingdom?"

It was Claudas who replied once again, "Word has reached our kingdoms that you have formed an alliance with the warlock Emrys."

"That is true," said Arthur.

Arthur knew that the farther north one travelled the more prevalent and tolerated magic was purported to be. Yet it surprised him that four kings would travel all this way just for Merlin. Had they heard of him even so far away?

"We were hoping to honour your newfound alliance with a visit and have a chance to meet with Emrys and your good self in order to cement a firm friendship between our kingdoms and yours."

Arthur felt his heart beat faster at the mention of an alliance. He had to take full advantage of this opportunity to strengthen Camelot.

"Then we shall hold a feast tonight in honour of your visit, with Emrys in attendance!" he announced.

Arthur heard Merlin somewhere behind him choke. He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes while the foreign kings could still see him. Merlin always worried about things needlessly. It would be good for the people to see Emrys at a public event and besides, what could possibly go wrong?


	3. Chapter 3 – The Feast

**Chapter 3 – The Feast**

Brangaine stood behind the head table, which seated the king and queen of Camelot, the four foreign kings and one cloaked and mysterious sorcerer. Brangaine had heard of Emrys since she was a child. Her parents spoke of how he would be the greatest sorcerer ever to walk the earth. In other circumstances, she would have loved the opportunity to come face to face with someone whose wisdom and power were the stuff of legend. However at the moment it was making her job more difficult.

"More wine!" shouted King Ban jovially and Brangaine stepped forward to refill his cup with the jug she held.

That was another thing that was currently interfering with her real job – having to do the work of a servant in order to not blow her cover.

Her last assignment had been to play the part of a lady at court in Lot's kingdom and that life had been very comfortable. Unfortunately Lot had narrowed down the suspects of who was passing information out of his kingdom to the point that she had felt it prudent to skip town, rather than risk having her head become one of the decorations on his wall. So for now she was doing smaller jobs for Vortigern until an opportunity came for her to be integrated more permanently into a kingdom that he wanted to keep tabs on.

Working for Vortigern would not have been her first choice of occupation but she felt that she could have done worse in life. She had been on her own since the age of thirteen, when her whole family had been killed by angry townsfolk who had welcomed them as the resident providers of magical charms and potions one day, and blamed them for using their craft to cause a plague the next. She had managed to escape and found herself moving from place to place, earning a living with the magical talents her parents had taught her but never being able to settle down. The villages in Vortigern's kingdom were generally accepting of a witch passing through and selling her services, but any implication that she planned to make her stay more permanent and she had been met with everything from open hostility to overhearing murmured plans to murder her in her sleep. Spying for Vortigern had oddly enough provided her with more security than she had ever had before.

Her current assignment was to determine the identity of Emrys. Vortigern was rather obsessed with the man, almost to the point of madness. However, it was not Brangaine's job to question Vortigern's motives or his sanity; it was her job to give him the information that he requested.

The main advantage of playing the part of a servant, which she had never had in her role as a lady, was the ability to move around unseen and learn all kinds of things from people she spoke to without drawing attention to herself for asking questions.

One of the first things that she learned was that Camelot was far from a traditional kingdom. The split between the roles of nobility and peasant were blurred in a way that she had never come across in any kingdom she had been assigned to. Knights of Camelot were chosen based on sword-skills and bravery, rather than on blood-ties and house allegiances. The Queen herself was a former servant. Brangaine had even observed nobility and servants mingling as though it was the most natural thing in the world. The king himself seemed to put more stock in the words of his manservant than those of his own councillors.

This actually worked greatly in her favour because the servants of Camelot were better informed about the lives of the nobility and general going-ons in the castle than any she had ever come across. Brangaine figured that if anyone in Camelot knew Emrys' identity, the servants were certain to have picked up on it.

She had met a red-haired maid in the kitchens while preparing for the feast who was a veritable gold mine of information. Brangaine got the impression that the woman knew every secret of every citizen of Camelot, although she claimed not to know who Emrys was. However, she did give Brangaine a list of people to talk to who had theories of their own about his identity.

"Just don't talk to old man Archie," she had said with a laugh.

"Why not?" Brangaine asked, not quite getting the joke.

"He always has crazy theories about everything," the red-haired woman had replied. "He has this mad idea that Emrys is King Arthur's manservant Merlin. He will tell anyone who will listen all about how whenever Emrys shows up Merlin is nowhere to be seen. It is one of the craziest theories he's ever had and that is including the one about Sir Leon being immortal."

"Why is it so crazy?" she had asked. After all, she knew not to underestimate servants.

"You haven't met Merlin have you?" the red-haired woman had simply asked with a snigger.

Brangaine had spoken to all of the people that the red-haired woman had recommended, as well as the people they suspected. However, none of their evidence was very compelling and nothing struck her as particularly suspicious about any of the people she secretly interrogated.

She even went to speak to the man called Archie against the redhead's advice and made a point of introducing herself to Merlin. She liked to follow up every lead, no matter how tenuous, and anyways, she knew better than anyone that appearances could be deceiving. However, within moments of meeting Archie, Brangaine had understood the red-head's dismissal of the man. She had only had one short conversation with him, but he had spoken every word of it as though he was pronouncing an irrefutable truth, waving his finger in the air dramatically. With his over-the-top way of talking, combined with his mass of white hair that stuck out in every direction, it was obvious why no one in Camelot could take him seriously. Moreover, after a short conversation with Merlin she found that she had to admit that she was with the redhead on this one – the idea of him being Emrys was pretty absurd.

In the end Brangaine had to admit that she wasn't going to find out who Emrys was by talking to people. However, she was far from giving up. She had the whole feast in which to devise a way to discover his secret and more than a few tricks up her sleeve.

Emrys took a sip of wine and Brangaine eagerly leaned forward to look into his cup. Finally, he had drunk enough that it would not seem odd for her to top it up. The other occupants of the head table had all gone through a few refills each throughout the course of the evening but Emrys had barely touched his drink.

Brangaine leaned quite low towards the table as she filled Emrys' cup so that he wouldn't see her slip a few drops of potion into it from a small vial she had uncapped ahead of time. She backed up from the table feeling triumphant. The potion was one of the most useful things in her arsenal as a spy. It would create a magical trail, visible only to her eyes, wherever the person who drank the potion went for the next day or so. Even after Emrys had removed his cloak and slipped back into his secret identity, she would only have to follow the trail.

However, when Emrys next lifted his wine, he held the cup up to his mouth as though he was about to take a sip and then stopped. He looked at the wine for a moment before putting it back on the table and turning his attention back to his food.

Brangaine stiffened. Had he noticed the potion? It was tasteless, scentless and colourless. There should be no way he could know it was there. And if he had detected the potion, why didn't he say anything? Then she realized – he didn't want to make a scene. It would certainly cause trouble for the five kingdoms represented if it was suggested that one of them might have a hand in magically drugging the guest of honour.

Or maybe he had simply decided that he had had enough wine for the evening. Brangaine relaxed a bit. That was much more likely. He had been watching his wine consumption all evening. He had probably simply been about to take a sip and then thought better of it. Brangaine was actually somewhat amused by the thought that the great Emrys couldn't hold his alcohol. But if he wasn't planning to drink any more of the wine, she would have to use another method to discover his identity.

Brangaine snuck a piece of meat off of Claudas' plate while refilling his cup and then discretely backed out of the room. It took a minute for her to enchant the meat and another for it to stop glowing. Fortunately nobody had noticed her absence or when she slipped the piece of meat onto Emrys' plate while pretending to wipe up a spill on the table near him.

The spell on the meat was not nearly as convenient as the potion, but it should still allow her to find Emrys after the feast. The spell would cause the consumer to cluck like a chicken whenever they heard fingers snapping. The spell was a prank that her mother used to play on her father as part of a long-standing joke that had originated long before Brangaine was born, but now Brangaine had found a whole new use for it. All she had to do was go around the castle the next day snapping her fingers and whoever started clucking would be Emrys.

Emrys didn't notice the new addition to his food and as he continued eating he eventually picked it up. However, he did not eat it as he had the other pieces of meat. Instead he held it up in front of him for a moment as though inspecting it. When he finally stopped staring at the meat and moved, Brangaine wouldn't have seen what happened if she hadn't been watching Emrys so closely. No one else saw the motion as Emrys leaned forward and dropped the piece of meat into his cup of wine. Then Emrys turned around and looked straight at Brangaine, who nearly dropped the jug of wine she was holding.

"I accidentally dropped some meat in this wine," he said, holding it out to her. "Could you please bring me a new cup?"

Brangaine nodded and took the cup from him silently. She decided to stop trying to slip Emrys enchanted food. There were enough servants behind the head table, not to mention the kings sitting at the table beside him, with access to his plate that Emrys shouldn't be able to identify her as the source of the wine and meat, but if he was on to the fact that someone was trying to bewitch his food, it wasn't worth the risk.

While Brangaine hung back from the table, trying to decide on her next course of action, she barely noticed as King Claudas got up from the table and left the room. It was hardly something of note since people did occasionally need to relieve themselves, especially considering how much he was drinking, or get a breath of fresh air. However, she did take notice when a servant discretely passed a small slip of paper to Emrys and he glanced at it and then also excused himself from the table.

It was not difficult following Emrys through the corridors. The castle was so deserted and quiet that she could hang back out of sight and follow the sound of his footsteps. When the footsteps stopped, she snuck as close as she dared and when she saw two figures standing in the darkness, she quickly ducked into a nearby alcove where she could hear them without being seen.

"You wanted to talk to me," said Emrys.

"I have a proposition for you that I believe will be mutually beneficial," said the voice of Claudas.

"What is this proposition?"

"If you were to come back to my kingdom and use your magic to aid my army, we could be unstoppable," he said excitedly. "Ban and Bors are young and inexperienced and they have only the weakest of sorcerers working for them. And if Vortigern knows that you are working with me then he will not go to their aid; he may even help us. Taking their kingdoms would be a simple matter. And we could split the spoils. One of their thrones could be yours."

Emrys said nothing and with his hood up, Claudas would have as little indication of how he was taking the suggestion as Brangaine currently did.

"Think about it – all the riches and power! You would be a king! With your magic and my army we could conquer any realm we pleased!"

"No," said Emrys simply but firmly. "I'm staying here."

"Will you think about it?" asked Claudas desperately.

"No," said Emrys with finality and he turned and strode away.

Brangaine pressed herself into the shadows so that Emrys would not see her as he passed the alcove she was tucked away in. After Emrys had turned down the next corridor, she glanced at the dark shape of Claudas, who was still standing where they had been talking. He seemed to have been temporarily stunned by Emrys' abrupt refusal, so she quickly followed after Emrys.

Now that he was alone, she had her chance to reveal who he was. She had to work quickly though, before he returned to the feast.

She took careful aim with her hand and concentrated hard. Combat type magic had never been her strong point. She had always excelled at enchanting potions and objects, rather than throwing spells. Keeping her voice down and her hand trained on Emrys' back she said, "Áscrence."

Emrys tripped spectacularly and fell on his back. Brangaine was about to celebrate her good aim when she saw that the fall had not knocked the hood off as she had planned. It must be enchanted to stay up no matter what.

Suddenly fearful, Brangaine darted into an alcove, certain that Emrys would recognize the effects of a tripping curse and come looking for the sorcerer who had cast it. However, he simply got up, wiped the dust off of his cloak and continued on his way as though he was used to randomly tripping over nothing and had thought nothing of the event.

When Emrys returned to the feast, Brangaine had no choice but to slip back into position standing behind him. A few moments later Claudas also returned to his seat, looking rather put out, and drained his cup of wine in one gulp.

Suddenly Brangaine felt someone nudge her from the side and turned to see the redhead she had met earlier standing beside her and leaning in conspiratorially with a grin on her face.

"Old man Archie is going to be impossible when I tell him about this feast," she whispered with a small giggle.

It took Brangaine a second to figure out what the redhead was talking about and then she looked around and realized, "Merlin isn't here."

"Oh, but he is," the redhead said, nodding her head towards Emrys.

"Of course, silly me," said Brangaine, now grinning herself.

"I mean, the proof speaks for itself," the redhead said in a hilariously accurate impression of Archie's voice.

Brangaine giggled and then wondered out loud, "Where is he though? You'd think the king's manservant would be here."

"Word around the castle is that he is terrified of magic."

"Aren't most people?" Brangaine asked, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. She had thought that the people in Vortigern's kingdom were distrustful of magic until she had been sent to spy in other kingdoms. In Lot's kingdom, magic was more often than not a weapon used by the king to oppress his subjects and it was feared and hated by anyone without political immunity. The more she travelled, the more she realized that even limited tolerance for magic users working independently of the local lords, as she once had, was a rarity. And yet Camelot was the first kingdom that she had been to in which magic was considered a crime. She was used to the fear of magic by the average villager, but usually the ruling classes preferred to try to control magic wherever they found it and use it for their own gain, rather than destroy it.

"Well it is not something most people want to mess with, but I don't see anyone else skipping feasts just to avoid being in the same room as a sorcerer. Besides, a normal person would be too curious. We don't get to see much of Emrys. They say he can see the future. What I wouldn't give to talk to him!"

Brangaine could see why the redhead, who seemed to soak up facts about everything and everyone like a sponge, would love a glimpse into the future. Personally, she preferred to find out things as they happened. She had met a few seers and none of them were particularly happy people. Although at the moment the gift of prophecy might be useful in trying to find out who was under that cloak.

"Anyways, gotta get back to work," the redhead said, before slipping off to her place behind the side table and filling a lady's glass with her wine jug.

Wine. An idea was starting to form in Brangaine's mind. Emrys had barely touched the glass of wine that Brangaine had brought to replace the one that she had spiked. If he had such a low tolerance for alcohol, what would happen if she could get him to consume more?

Brangaine fetched a cup of water. Usually wine was the only drink available at a feast but Emrys had barely drunk anything all evening and would likely appreciate a nice cup of something non-alcoholic. She stared at the water for a moment, concentrating on this specific water and trying to memorize every drop of it. It was going to take both concentration and good timing to pull this off. She placed the cup on the table in front of Emrys. Hopefully he would just think that she had noticed that he was not drinking much wine and had brought it to be considerate.

She had barely backed up from the table when Emrys picked up the cup of water. He inspected it for a moment, as though checking it was really water. Brangaine was glad that she hadn't tried to enchant it before giving it to him again, since he seemed to have some uncanny ability to detect such things. He appeared to determine that it really was just water, lifted the glass to his mouth and drained the whole thing. Brangaine waited until he had swallowed the last drop of water and then, concentrating really hard on her memory of the water, she whispered her spell.

It is very difficult to enchant an object while said object is not within reach or even sight, but this spell was not a difficult one so she hoped concentrating on the thought of the water would be enough for her magic to affect it. She wasn't sure if she had pulled it off but it if had worked, all of the water would have turned to wine. She also added an extra fermentation spell to increase the content of alcohol for good measure. Now she merely had to wait and see if Emrys showed any signs of having digested rather more alcohol than he clearly intended to.

She dug into her pocket and pulled out an enchanted stone that was perhaps the single most useful object that she owned. It was enchanted to channel and enhance sound and allowed her to listen in on conversations outside of her normal hearing range. She held it up to her ear and heard voices and snippets of conversation around the room. She twisted it and shifted the position until she heard the voices of those sitting at the head table. She stopped and held it still, hoping no one would wonder why she was holding her arm in such a strange position.

"… visit sometime," came the voice of King Ban. "Our court mistral is a master on the lute."

"Indeed," King Bors agreed, "I have heard him myself and can assure you that it is worth the trip just to hear him play."

"Have you heard him play, King Claudas?" Emrys inquired in a carefully neutral tone.

Brangaine was rather impressed by his audacity in purposely drawing Claudas into the conversation. He was clearly not ignoring the fact that Claudas had tried to get him involved in a plan to betray the alliance.

"Yes, he is quite good," Claudas grunted. He was doing a very poor job of keeping any hint of friendliness in his voice.

"Come now," said Bors, "you do not give him the credit he deserves. He is more than quite good."

"He's just jealous because he has no musical talent himself," said Vortigern, before turning to Emrys. "Do you have musical talent, Emrys?"

Brangaine inwardly groaned. She hoped Vortigern hadn't been asking questions like this all evening. The way his voice changed when he spoke to Emrys made it sound more like part of an interrogation than a conversation. He might as well just blatantly ask him his identity. Honestly, what did he pay Brangaine for if he was going to try to do her job himself?

Emrys didn't reply, however. He swayed slightly from side to side in his chair. Brangaine found that encouraging. Her spell must have worked after all. Not to mention, the extra fermentation spell must have increased the alcohol content very significantly for it to start affecting him this much so quickly.

"Well, I would love to come visit your kingdom, King Ban," King Arthur said to cover the awkward silence. "Your minstrel certainly sounds like reason enough to make the journey."

"Then we will welcome you gladly," said King Ban, "and throw a celebration worthy of the occasion."

"I look forward to it then," Arthur replied.

"It would be an honour to repay you for your hospitality in having us here," King Ban continued happily. "This is the best feast I have been to in ages. The food is excellent!"

"Perhaps we should have a tournament tomorrow, to honour your visit," Arthur suggested.

"That indeed sounds enjoyable," Ban answered enthusiastically. "It is hard to beat a good joust!"

"I can sing," Emrys said suddenly.

The kings cut off their conversation and all turned to look at him.

"I have musical, um, musical talent," he said starting to slur his words slightly. "I can sing."

"No you can't," said Arthur warningly.

"When men begin to sow," Emrys started singing, "for well here wheat they know, in the month of May…"

"Why don't I call my court mistral," King Arthur suggested loudly, cutting across Emrys. "He may not be renowned throughout the kingdoms but he is entertaining enough."

"I wasn't done," said Emrys petulantly, and then he slumped forward unto the table, knocking his cup of wine onto the floor and ending up with his face in his dinner plate. It was hard to tell if he was still conscious, as he just lay there unmoving.

There was a stunned silence at the head table and even many of the other occupants of the room cut off their conversations as they noticed the sorcerer slumped over with his shadowy face in his dinner.

"I think he has just had a bit too much to drink," said King Arthur.

He stood up and hauled Emrys out of his seat. It seemed that Emrys was not completely unconscious, as he stood partially on his own, with Arthur stabilizing him, and mumbled something unintelligible. About a dozen people were halfway out of their seats, including Ban, Bors, and Vortigern, before Arthur said firmly, "It's ok, I'll handle this."

Brangaine pocketed her stone and waited until everybody watching had turned away from the sight of Arthur half-dragging Emrys out of the room before slipping out herself.

The king and the sorcerer made so much noise stumbling down the corridors that Brangaine could have followed them in her sleep. Arthur dragged Emrys into a room with a plaque that read "Court Physician".

When Brangaine approached the door, she found it slightly ajar, but not wanting to risk being seen looking in, she first listened to the sounds in the room and heard Arthur's voice say, "You're going to have to take the cloak off yourself, the spell won't let me do it."

There was a crash that sounded as though Emrys had fallen over.

"Honestly, Merlin, how much did you drink?"

Brangaine couldn't help it, she peeked through the slit where the door was open and saw Merlin, sitting on the floor and still struggling to get completely out of Emrys' cloak, while King Arthur stood over him with his hands on his hips, looking exasperated.

Brangaine quickly drew back from the opening in the door. She seemed to be able to process only one thought – old man Archie was right.

There were more sounds of scrambling and footsteps within the room and after a moment, Brangaine had to retreat around a corner when she heard footsteps approaching the door she was listening at. She watched Arthur leave the room and head back towards the feast before approaching the door again. A peak inside told her that the room was empty, so she quietly stole inside. She crossed to the back of the room where she saw another door and listened carefully outside it. When she heard nothing, she carefully eased the door open, listening intently and ready to run if need be. But there was no sound from in the room and she peered in to see Merlin slumped on a bed and fast asleep.

Merlin was Emrys. She had to admit that she had been completely fooled. As a spy, concealment, misdirection, and acting were her forte and as an expert she could appreciate Merlin's skills in that area. Sure she had only spoken to him once before, but she was usually good at detecting when people were hiding things, and she hadn't had a clue. And even apart from fooling her, Merlin had the entire castle convinced that the notion of him being a sorcerer was a hilarious joke.

Brangaine quietly closed the door and retreated from the court physician's chambers. She returned to the feast, where she caught the eye of Vortigern, who seemed to have noticed that she had been gone. She nodded at him meaningfully.

Vortigern immediately got out of his seat and excused himself from the room. Brangaine followed, rolling her eyes while no one could see. Vortigern didn't seem to understand the meaning of the word patience. It would have done no harm for him to wait until after the feast when their meeting to talk would have not been the least bit suspicious.

"Well, did you find out who Emrys is?" he asked, standing in the corridor right outside the feast room. Couldn't he at least have moved farther away in case someone came out? Brangaine missed the days where she would send him information using ravens and never had to see him in person.

"Yes," she replied, "it is Merlin – King Arthur's manservant."

"Where is he?" asked Vortigern excitedly.

"Asleep in the physician's quarters."

Vortigern pulled out a small piece of paper and scribbled a note on it. He folded it and gave it to Brangaine.

"Give this to Sir Reginald," he said before returning to the feast.

Brangaine edged over to the table where Vortigern's knights were sitting and delivered the message. Reginald left the room after reading the note and she returned to the head table to act out the rest of the evening as the servant she was pretending to be.

Suddenly Brangaine felt troubled. She had been feeling quite proud of herself for having figured out what no one else could and succeeding in her mission. But now that her work was complete she found herself thinking not of the puzzle that was Emrys, but of Merlin the sweet boy she had met the day before, and she wondered for the first time what Vortigern wanted with him.

**Notes:**

**I got the idea for Brangaine when I was researching occupations in the middle ages and read that most spies were women. She was named after a clever and sneaky handmaiden in Arthurian legends.**


	4. Chapter 4 – Arthur

**Chapter 4 – Arthur**

Why did Merlin have to be such a lightweight? The evening had been going so well. The four kings had been enjoying themselves and Arthur could feel strong allegiances forming between their kingdoms. The people attending the feast had not seemed the least bit concerned by the presence of a sorcerer sitting at the head table. The foreign kings had been wholeheartedly interested in meeting Merlin and it had been fascinating for Arthur to hear about how magic was viewed in their kingdoms. If he was going to legalize magic, he could not underestimate the usefulness of gaining information of how it was regulated and used in kingdoms where there was no ban on it.

And then Merlin had to start singing and introduce his face to his dinner plate, right in front of all the high ranking members of Arthur's court and the visitors. Try as he might, Arthur could not seem to capture the atmosphere of the room that had been lost after that incident. Claudas had hardly said a word and when he did join in the conversation it was just in short, snippy replies. Vortigern had also seemed very distracted after Merlin had left the feast. While before he had enthusiastically participated in the conversation, now he seemed to not be paying much attention to anything around him and Arthur was forced to repeat any questions directed at him, which he was blatantly not listening to. He had also stopped eating and it seemed as though he was simply waiting for the feast to be over.

Arthur worried that Merlin's undignified behaviour had disenchanted his guests to the extent that they were regretting their decisions to propose an alliance with Camelot. He needed to get control of the situation again. Surely they could brush past this incident and enjoy the rest of the feast without Merlin. Arthur stood up, lifting his glass.

"I propose a toast," he said. If he could get the whole room focussed on something then it could act as a distraction from the last time that the whole room had been watching the head table. Then maybe when they returned to their separate conversations it would be easier to move on.

The other occupants of the room stood and lifted their glasses and Arthur continued, "We are honoured by the presence of the allied kings of the north, who have seen fit to extend the hand of friendship to Camelot. We gladly accept this alliance and as such I would like to make a toast to King Claudas, King Ban, King Bors, and King Vortigern."

Arthur inclined his head slightly to each king as he said their names and then took a swig of wine. The people in the room followed his lead and all took a drink from their own cups.

Arthur made to sit back in his chair, but stopped when he heard a crashing sound to his side. He looked up to see that both Ban and Bors had collapsed, the wine goblets they had held spilling the remains of their contents on the floor.

"Gaius," Arthur called, but Gaius had already rushed forward and was examining the two kings.

"They've been poisoned," he said.

Claudas turned to Arthur, slamming his hand down on the table. "So this is what you think of our alliance!"

It took Arthur a moment to realize what Claudas meant by that.

"We came here to foster friendship between our kingdoms and you repay us with poison!" he continued. "If this is how you treat allies then I am leaving."

"Wait," said Arthur, "I swear I had nothing to do with this!"

But Claudas was already at the exit, his men following him.

"I'm leaving too," said Vortigern, turning towards the door, "before you poison me as well."

Arthur stood there, feeling like the whole situation was slipping away as he watched two of his newfound allies leave in anger, while the other two lay unmoving on the floor. He could hardly order his knights to detain Vortigern and Claudas, so he turned his attention to the two other kings who were hopefully not beyond saving.

"They are still alive," said Gaius, as though sensing Arthur's question. "We need to get them to my chambers."

Arthur called his knights, but Ban and Bors' own men were already lifting them up. Arthur accepted this and led the men to Gaius' chambers, where they placed them on the cots he had set up for patients. Gaius grabbed various bottles from shelves and administered medicines with no explanation of his actions. Arthur hung back with the others, hoping that since Gaius was still working that meant not all hope was lost.

After what felt like hours, Gaius stopped moving and turned to Arthur. "I have tried to stabilize their conditions but all I have managed is to slow the poison's effects."

"Can't you cure them?"

"The only way to cure them now is with powerful magic."

Arthur turned to his own knights that had followed him and said, "Light the beacon."

As his knights left, Arthur felt his hope diminishing. Merlin was probably still too drunk to help Ban and Bors. Still, he was going to have to try. Arthur crossed to the back of the room, intending to drag Merlin out of bed and sober him up enough to go back to playing Emrys. However, when Arthur opened Merlin's door, what he saw crushed his last hope. Merlin's bed was empty.

Arthur felt his head pounding and wished he hadn't drunk so much wine at the feast. He entered Merlin's room but could see no clues as to where he might have gone. He must have wandered off somewhere in a drunken stupor. He moved to Merlin's window and saw the parties of King Vortigern and King Claudas riding out of the city, even though it was still the dead of night.

Arthur emerged from Merlin's room and asked Gaius, "How long do they have?"

"It is hard to say, Sire, I can try to prolong their life but only for a few days at best."

"But they should be ok until Emrys answers the summons?"

"If he comes tomorrow, that should be soon enough. They will not be in serious danger for at least a couple days."

Arthur nodded. "I'll leave them in your care then."

He left the room and tracked down some of his guards and sent them to search the castle for his manservant, simply saying that he had gone missing. Arthur spent some time searching as well before realizing that he was basically just stumbling randomly around the castle. He instructed his men to wake him if they found Merlin, if Emrys answered the summons or if there was any change with Ban and Bors and then went to bed, passing out almost instantly.

When he woke the next day, he had a pounding headache but felt sure that Merlin must be sober by now and on his way back to answer Arthur's summons. However, he found Gaius still caring for Ban and Bors and his guards reported no sightings of either Merlin or Emrys.

Now Arthur was starting to get worried by Merlin's absence. If he had just wandered off, surely he would have been found by now. Had something happened to him? But Arthur had seen him hardly an hour before finding his bed empty so what could possibly have happened to him in that time? Arthur called his knights and sent them out in parties to search the castle, the lower town and even the forest and outlying villages. Surely Merlin couldn't just disappear into thin air. Arthur spent the day running around personally to any place that he imagined Merlin might go, but with no luck.

When all the search parties reported back that there was no trace of Merlin, Arthur started to really worry. He was gone. Arthur was only really realizing how much he relied on Merlin now that he wasn't here. If they couldn't find him soon, two men would die and Camelot's alliance with four kingdoms would be shattered. And Arthur felt like there was an icy blade in his chest when he thought of what kind of scenario could have caused Merlin to disappear and the chilling whispers that he couldn't block completely out of his mind that Merlin might already be dead.

The situation was made infinitely worse by the fact that most people were not nearly as concerned by Merlin's continued absence as by the fact that Emrys had not answered the summons. Arthur had no answers to give when he was asked where Emrys was and why he had not come to their aid this time.

After two full days of searching, the condition that Ban and Bors were in started to deteriorate to the point that their lives were in serious danger if they did not get help soon. Arthur was at his wit's end. He had already searched everywhere imaginable multiple times and simply could not account for where Merlin had vanished to.

On the third day he decided to try a different approach. He dug up an old ratty cloak that should hide his identity from anyone who wasn't looking too closely and didn't know him well. People generally were unable to recognize a king they did not see up close very often when he was somewhere they were not expecting him to be. He headed to a seedy tavern in an outlying village only a few hours ride from the castle, where the chance of being recognized was much slimmer than in the lower town right outside the castle. And because he had been forced to admit that the only reason he had always survived this kind of thing alone before was that "alone" had always included Merlin, he brought Gwaine along with him. In fact, he had asked Gwaine to recommend the sketchiest tavern around, which the knight was glad to help with.

Arthur's idea was that he may overhear something that could lead him to Merlin. Seeing as he and his knights had failed to find him, Arthur could only hope that people more connected to the criminal classes might know something that they did not. It was a long-shot, but at least Arthur felt like he was doing something, rather than sitting around in his castle hoping that Merlin would just magically pop up out of nowhere.

When Arthur entered the tavern, with a cloaked Gwaine at his heels, he walked past as many tables as he could while appearing to simply be heading for an empty one and tried to catch bits of conversations. When he heard the name "Emrys" muttered at one table, he purposely sat down at an empty table next to it and ordered mead for himself and Gwaine. As the barmaid brought them their drink, he strained his ears to catch the conversation at the next table.

"There's no way that's true," said a deep voice.

"Then what do you think happened to the king's manservant?" asked a nervous sounding voice, more high pitched than the other.

Arthur pressed his mug to his lips, trying to hide the eagerness on his face as he waited for the answer.

"I don't know, but I don't think Emrys ate him," said the deep voice.

Arthur nearly choked on the drink he had been sipping.

"Is that what people are saying?" he asked Gwaine in a whisper.

"People are saying all kinds of things, especially far from the city where they have less information about what is going on," he answered. "I even heard a rumor that Merlin _is_ Emrys and that's why they both disappeared at the same time. As if. I think I would know if Merlin could use magic. I've met a few sorcerers in my time. I can spot them a mile away."

Arthur took another sip of mead to avoid responding to Gwaine. The conversation at the next table seemed to have died off, leaving them with nothing to listen in on.

"What about the people in the city, what are they saying?" asked Arthur after a moment.

Gwaine seemed to be suddenly very interested in a scuff mark on the table and didn't answer. Arthur wasn't sure what to make of that but was distracted when a newcomer joined the table next to them and asked the two men there what they were talking about.

"We were just discussing what happened to the king's manservant that he is so desperately looking for," said the high voice.

"Well it's obvious isn't it," said the newcomer.

Arthur stiffened, was this it?

"King Arthur murdered him," the newcomer finished.

What?!

"You think he poisoned him like he did Ban and Bors?" asked the high pitched voice.

"You don't really believe that King Arthur had those two poisoned, do you?" asked the deep voice.

"I was in the castle yesterday," said the newcomer authoritatively. "It is what everyone is saying. Apparently Claudas announced for all to hear at the feast that it was Arthur who had poisoned the other kings. And that's not all. Everyone who was at the feast is saying that there was one other person who Arthur poisoned that night."

"Who?" asked the high voice.

"Emrys," said the newcomer dramatically.

"Did they see something?"

"Apparently Emrys collapsed part way through the feast and Arthur dragged him outside, refusing to let anyone else come with him. And that was the last anyone saw of Emrys. He has never missed a summons before, so why else would he suddenly have vanished?"

"But why would King Arthur do that?" asked the deep voice.

"Word around the castle is that Arthur has gone off his rocker. They say he was only pretending to work with Emrys in order to lull him into a false sense of security and kill him. But the deception went to his head and he started killing other people as well. Once he had poisoned Emrys and dumped him somewhere, he couldn't help himself poisoning two more people at that table. And then his manservant went next. And they say he was very fond of his manservant, so he must have really flipped his lid to kill him so heartlessly. There's no telling what he'll do now."

Arthur stared at the drink in his hands, not really even seeing it. He could hardly believe that his people would think him capable of such a thing.

"Are people really saying that?" Arthur asked, looking up at Gwaine.

Gwaine seemed unable to look Arthur in the eye as he said quietly, "Not everyone."

"It's a shame," the newcomer continued talking, "Arthur was a good king but his father went round the bend too so I guess it was only a matter of time before his bloodlust kicked in. The nobles aren't nearly as scared of Arthur as they were of Uther though, so it's only a matter of time before he is history."

"You think he is going to be dethroned?" asked the deep voice.

"I guarantee it," said the newcomer confidently. "There are already rumors of nobles whispering behind his back, making alliances and talking of usurping his throne. After all, who wants to live in the court of a king who poisons people on a whim?"

Gwaine was still refusing to look at Arthur properly and he knew that this was no idle gossip. This was actually happening.

"It's a shame," said the deep voice, "Emrys chased off that serket that wandered into the town. I hate to think that he is dead."

"I know," said the newcomer, "it was amazing the things he could do and all he ever wanted to do was help people. And to think, just a few months ago everyone was saying he would be the downfall of Camelot. He doesn't come out here much, but nearly everyone in the city knows someone who would likely be dead if it wasn't for him. I think it is Arthur's betrayal and murder of Emrys more than anything that is causing people to rise up against him."

Arthur couldn't help but feel a sense of irony in that, after all his work to make the people of Camelot accept Emrys so that they would not reject him for bringing magic into the kingdom, he had done such a good job that they were now rejecting him due to his supposed betrayal of Emrys. Oh Merlin, Arthur thought, where are you?

"So who do you think is going to be king next?" asked the high voice.

"I don't know," replied the newcomer, "maybe whoever draws out the sword?"

"Have people been trying again?" the high voice asked.

"I heard that a few nobles went out last night to give it a go. None of them came back with it though so I guess they weren't the rightful king," said the newcomer.

"Have you tried pulling it out yet?"

"Yeah, have you?"

"Yes, but no luck."

"If only a king can pull it out what makes you think you could?" asked the deep voice.

"I just wanted to see if the stories were true," explained the high voice.

"All that proves is that you aren't the king, moron," said the deep voice.

"So you haven't tried it?"

"Well – yes," the deep voice admitted, "but I wasn't expecting anything!"

"Did you think you could move it by brute strength?" asked the high voice in amusement.

Their conversation moved on to the topic of blacksmithing and Arthur stopped listening. He downed his goblet of mead, stood up and left the tavern.

Gwaine had to jog to catch up to Arthur, and called to him, "Arthur, not everyone believes all that stuff!"

"But enough people do," said Arthur. It wasn't a question.

"It will blow over," said Gwaine unconvincingly.

"What was that stuff about pulling out a sword at the end?" Arthur asked, needing to know all the details if he was going to have to fight to keep his throne.

"Haven't you heard of the sword in the stone?"

Arthur shook his head. Why did everyone else always seem to know everything before he did?

As they rode back to Camelot, Gwaine told him about the sword, "There is a legend that King Bruta, your ancestor and the first king of Camelot, drove a sword into a stone deep in the woods. It is said that only a true king of Camelot can pull it free. And it was foretold that the man who freed the sword would declare new laws for the benefit of all the lands and reign over the greatest kingdom the world had ever known. A few months ago everyone was talking about it and it was all the rage to go out and try to pull it free. No one managed to though."

Arthur wondered why he had never heard this legend if everyone else apparently had.

When they arrived back at the castle, Arthur eagerly checked with Gaius and the knights who were waiting to report to him but Merlin still had not returned. Arthur stormed through the castle, not even sure where he was headed. Merlin was gone, his claim to the throne was in question, and he didn't know what to do. His trip to the tavern, while informative, had not gotten him any closer to finding Merlin. He wondered if every person he passed in the corridors really believed that he had poisoned four people. He couldn't tell if there was really fear and hatred in their eyes as they looked at him or if it was just his imagination interpreting their expressions based on what he had heard.

Perhaps over time people would see that he was not "off his rocker" when no one else around him mysteriously disappeared. But would he be able to keep his throne long enough for that? Arthur did not often realize how much he relied on the belief people had in him. If they didn't want him as their king, then who was to say he should be king?

Then Arthur suddenly thought of the sword that Gwaine had told him about. The sword had the power to determine the true king of Camelot. If he could pull it free, he would not have to wonder if he really deserved his throne. And if he couldn't – well, someone better could replace him and Camelot would truly have the king it needed.

Arthur reversed his steps and returned to Gaius' chambers to ask for directions to the sword in the stone. Gaius was able to tell him the way and Arthur immediately headed out.

It felt good to get out of the city. In there he felt like he could hear people around every corner whispering about him. It was strange because he hadn't noticed it before his trip to the tavern with Gwaine. Either he had not been paying attention before, or he was imagining it now. In either case, he felt more relaxed alone in the woods.

When he found the clearing that Gaius had described he felt a sense of solemn ceremony. This was it – the deciding moment where he would find out whether he truly deserved to be king or if he should move aside for someone better.

He approached the sword that was stuck in a large boulder in the exact center of the clearing. Light shone through the trees above, illuminating the scene and making the golden symbols on the blade glisten. It was a beautiful sword. Arthur took hold of the hilt and it felt natural in his hand, like the sword had been forged specifically for him. He stood there for a moment, not wanting to pull yet because if the sword did not move it would mean that his whole life and everything he had ever worked for had been for nothing. But if it was freed for him…

Arthur pulled on the sword.

It did not move.

No. It was supposed to come out for him. He must have just not pulled hard enough. Arthur took hold of the sword with both hands this time and pulled with all his strength.

Nothing happened.

Maybe the true king had to be very strong. Arthur braced himself with his foot against the stone and pulled on the sword, while pushing down on the rock with his foot.

Nothing.

Arthur backed up, panting from the effort.

So it was true, he was no king.

All his life Arthur had known that one day he would be king and then, one day he was. But in the end it wasn't him. Somewhere out there, there was a true king who would lead Camelot and rule over the greatest kingdom the world had ever known, but it wasn't him. It was no wonder he had made such a mess of things. He was trying to do a job he just wasn't cut out to do. His people had lost faith in him, his kingdom's alliances were in tatters and his greatest ally was missing. The people were right to want a new king. He had completely failed them.

Arthur briefly wondered whether Merlin had simply realized that Arthur was not the true king and abandoned him to go and serve the real king of Camelot, wherever he might be. But he forced himself not to think of that – it was too painful.

But if Arthur was not destined to be king, what was his destiny? He was no one now. He had nothing. Was there even any point in returning to Camelot when it would just mean admitting to everyone that his whole life had been a lie?

Arthur stumbled into the forest, not even paying attention to which direction he was heading in.

**Notes:**

**I've noticed that in the show Arthur tends to blame himself for everything. He's got pretty low self-esteem deep down. **


	5. Chapter 5 – Merlin

**Chapter 5 – Merlin **

Merlin knew the moment that he awoke that something was wrong. He was not in his own bed, but somewhere pitch black and cold. It was very disconcerting waking up somewhere unfamiliar, with no idea of how he had gotten there. He could feel cold, hard stone beneath him and his muscles ached with having lain on it for who knows how long. He tried to shift his position and felt a cold hard pressure around his wrists. He was wearing manacles.

He tried to remember how he had gotten here. The last thing he could clearly remember was being at the feast, but then things seemed to get fuzzy. He vaguely remembered Arthur dumping him on his bed, though he couldn't remember leaving the feast. Other than that there was nothing before waking up here.

Carefully, Merlin stood up. He strained his eyes and ears but could see nothing through the darkness and could hear nothing but his own shivery breaths. He reached out with his hands and, after taking several tentative steps forward, he found a cold stone wall. He felt along the wall until he had made four turns and deduced that he was in a small stone room, with a metal door – clearly a castle dungeon. There were no windows and the room was completely bear so it couldn't be in Camelot. Merlin had been in the dungeons enough times to know they didn't have any cells like this.

After listening again to make sure that there was no one around, Merlin concentrated on the cuffs on his wrists and whispered, "Unspanne."

The manacles flashed with a blinding light, a sudden pain wracked through his entire body and Merlin fell to the ground panting. His hands were still shackled.

For the first time since waking up in the strange place, Merlin felt fear. His spell had not worked and it was like the manacles had thrown his magic back at him. Gathering his strength, Merlin concentrated on the door of the cell, which had been illuminated for a moment when the manacles had flashed, and said, "Tospringe."

The manacles once again gave a burst of light and Merlin doubled over in pain. The door remained closed.

Merlin took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He couldn't use magic. He didn't know where he was or how he had gotten here. He had been captured and bound by someone who clearly knew that he was a sorcerer and had taken away his ability to fight back.

The only time he could remember feeling this frightened was when he had faced the dorocha. There had been a sinking feeling of hopelessness then too, when he had reached for his magic and found that it was not there. His magic was a part of him. He relied on it the way a knight in battle relied on a sword. Without it he felt empty and useless.

Time passed as Merlin sat alone in the dark, steadily growing both hungry and impatient. He wanted whoever had put him here to come back because at least then he wouldn't be sitting here with nothing but his own fear for company. He tried several more times to use magic, despite knowing it would be futile and suffered the pain from the cuffs each time. He tried calling Kilgharrah but the manacles punished him for that too.

When Merlin finally heard footsteps coming towards his cell he perked up, at least something was happening. He heard keys being turned in a lock and then had to turn his eyes away from the blinding light as a man entered the cell carrying a torch. Before Merlin's eyes had a chance to adjust to the light so he could get a sense of what was happening, a bag was shoved over his head and he was roughly pulled out of the cell by two sets of arms.

"Where am I?" Merlin tried asking, but was ignored.

As he was manhandled through corridors and up staircases, Merlin felt annoyed that he had waited so long to get out of the dungeon and now that he was finally being taken somewhere else he couldn't even see anything. It was better to feel annoyed, as it stopped him from feeling frightened. He tried to block out the images his mind insisted on conjuring of him being led blindfolded to a chopping block or tied to a stake and not even given a chance to try to get out of this.

A bright light, blinding him even through the bag, indicated to Merlin that he had been taken outside and that it was daytime. He could hear the sounds of people around now, as though he was in a town, but nothing distinct enough that he could gain any more information about his whereabouts.

"Where are you taking me?" Merlin tried talking to his captors again, but was not surprised when there was no response.

The smell of horses and a slight dimming of the light led Merlin to believe that he had been led into a stable. This was confirmed when he found himself being hoisted onto a horse in front of another man, who held the reigns.

As they rode, Merlin wondered if he should try something. His hands were manacled, but he could still use them. He could probably get the bag off of his head, but doing so would hardly be inconspicuous and the people guarding him would probably not take kindly to that. He could elbow the man riding behind him, which might make him fall off of the horse if he was lucky, but manacled and unable to use magic, even if he did that and tried to make a break for it he doubted he could get far. Apart from the horse he was riding on, judging by the sound of hoofs, there was one other horse and therefore at least one other rider guarding him. Since he didn't know what kind of weapons they had him covered with or what kind of orders they had regarding how to treat an escaping prisoner, Merlin figured his best chance was to wait until they arrived at wherever they were taking him and hope there would be a better opportunity to escape then.

When they finally did arrive, Merlin was taken off the horse and pushed to the ground. The bag was ripped off of his head and he looked up to see that he was kneeling at the feet of King Vortigern.

"At last," said Vortigern, "I can finally build my tower!"

The statement was so incongruous with the situation that Merlin did not even know what to think about it. He looked around, now that he could see, to try to grasp what was going on. He could see that they were on grassy land and there was a group of people standing around Vortigern including his soldiers and some men who looked like physical laborers. There were large stones sitting in piles and various tools lying around as though this was a building site, which at least explained Vortigern's strange proclamation.

"Why have you brought me here?" he asked.

Vortigern grinned at him. "You are to be part of something great. This land is to be called Dinas Emrys, after you, in recognition of your sacrifice. You should be proud, the tower of Dinas Emrys will be the greatest tower ever built."

Merlin was starting to think that Vortigern was quite simply insane. He was talking utter nonsense and the only meaning Merlin could grasp from it was that Vortigern had somehow found out that he was Emrys and was planning to kill him and then build a tower named after him. But if so, that was the stupidest thing Merlin had ever heard. He must have misunderstood something in Vortigern's less than illuminating explanation.

"Get the bowl," Vortigern said to one of the men who had escorted Merlin to him.

The next thing Merlin knew, he was being held down by two people on either side of him, kneeling with his neck over a large basin. He heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed behind him.

"Make sure to hold him still," Vortigern said. "I don't want to lose a single drop."

"Wait," said Merlin, his brain going into panic mode. "Wait, you can't build a tower here!"

Merlin didn't really understand why this was happening. All he knew was that Vortigern was about to have him killed and he couldn't use his magic right now. All he could do to save his own life was speak. And Vortigern seemed obsessed with this tower, so that is what Merlin had gone for as the topic that would hopefully interest the mad king enough to delay his execution.

"How did you know?" asked Vortigern, signalling the man behind Merlin with a sword to wait.

Vortigern's words didn't make much sense to Merlin. It was obvious to Merlin that a tower couldn't be built on this land, but why was Vortigern asking him how he had known that, since _he_ clearly thought that he _could_ build a tower here? But seeing as how Merlin was not currently being killed, he decided his best bet was to try to keep this going.

"It's obvious," he said, trying to sound like he had a clue what either of them were talking about.

"But that is why you need to be sacrificed," Vortigern said. "Every time I have tried to build the tower it has collapsed. Only by mixing the blood of Emrys with the mortar, will I be able to successfully build my tower."

"Who told you that?" asked Merlin, horrified.

What kind of ridiculous solution was that to a building problem? Couldn't these people see the reason that a tower couldn't be built here? It was plain as day to Merlin.

"A soothsayer," said Vortigern dismissively.

So a soothsayer had claimed that mixing the blood of a certain warlock into the building materials would somehow magically make the tower stay standing. And Vortigern had believed them? This soothsayer was most likely a charlatan who had only claimed that the solution to Vortigern's problem was to use Emrys' blood because it hadn't occurred to them that Vortigern would be able to capture the most powerful sorcerer to ever live in order to test the veracity of their claims.

Vortigern, clearly finished with the conversation, turned back to the man with the sword and nodded.

"That's wrong!" shouted Merlin desperately. "I know why you can't build the tower. My blood won't help."

Vortigern once again signalled the man to stay his sword and frowned at Merlin. "What do you mean?"

Merlin was thinking he had never been more right than in his assessment that this man was insane. Were all of these people equally dimwitted? It was so obvious why they couldn't build a tower here. Vortigern shouldn't have asked a soothsayer for the answer; he should have asked a farmer.

"The ground is not sturdy enough. There is an underground stream that causes the land to shift around so any buildings set on top of it will not stand for long."

Merlin, who was kneeling in the dirt, had known without even thinking, by the quality of the soil, what kind of land he was on.

"How do you know that?" Vortigern said suspiciously. "Perhaps you are just trying to save your own neck?"

"Would it hurt to check?" Merlin asked, trying not to sound like he was challenging the madman who currently held his life in his hands.

Vortigern turned to the laborers standing around and said, "Well? Get digging!"

In the time they spent digging, Merlin's mind was racing with ideas of how to get himself out of the situation he was still caught in. The white dragon emblem printed on Vortigern and his knight's tabards caught Merlin's eye and a plan started to form. Vortigern had seemed quite convinced by the words of a soothsayer and Merlin wondered if he could use that to his advantage.

It was not long before a stream was found running under the ground and Merlin's words were confirmed. Vortigern did not look very happy at the discovery.

"I will have to build my tower somewhere else," he said as though such an idea was a personal insult.

Then he turned to the man who was still behind Merlin and said dismissively, "I guess I don't need him after all. Kill him."

"Wait," said Merlin quickly, "don't you want to know how I knew that you were unable to build your tower here? And how I knew that there was a stream under the ground?"

Vortigern looked at Merlin disdainfully. "Alright, how did you know?"

"I see visions of things unknown."

Vortigern's interest was piqued by that. "Do you now?"

"Yes, I…" Merlin cut off his own speech and made his eyes roll back and flung his head back suddenly, changing his voice to a deep and mysterious tone he said, "I see a dragon. A white dragon swoops down from the sky. It is not alone. A red dragon not far behind. They clash. Blood. A war with only one victor. A…"

Merlin swung his head forward again, stopping his strange manner and said in his usual voice, "Sorry, what was I saying?"

"You were having a vision!" said Vortigern excitedly. "About me!"

"Was I?"

"Who wins?" Vortigern asked desperately. "The white dragon or the red? Who is the victor?"

"I'm sorry," said Merlin, "these manacles inhibit my power to see the future. I can only see glimpses like this. I cannot see to the end of the vision with my magic bound."

Vortigern signalled to his men and Merlin was pulled to his feet. Two men held his arms, while four more held him at sword point, with two behind and two in front of him. Another man took out a set of keys and took hold of Merlin's wrists.

"If you try anything, my men will kill you," said Vortigern warningly.

Idiots, Merlin thought to himself, as the shackles were removed from his hands.

"Now tell me," said Vortigern, "which dragon is the victor?"

Merlin grinned. His eyes glowed gold and the men surrounding him flew backwards, crashing into the ground. They lay scattered around him, unconscious.

Merlin breathed a sigh of relief. His magic was back. He never realized what a comfort it was to him every moment of his life except in the moments when it was taken away from him. Magic was simply who he was and now that it had returned he felt whole again.

Merlin inspected the horses tied up nearby and selected the one that clearly belonged to Vortigern, judging by the elaborate design on the saddle. After everything Vortigern had done, Merlin did not feel a shred of guilt in stealing the man's horse. He needed to get back to Camelot as soon as possible.

* * *

When Merlin arrived back in Camelot he found the physician's chambers full of Ban and Bors' men standing around their kings, who were lying on cots and looking very unwell.

"Merlin!" shouted Gaius suddenly, having just seen him.

The next thing he knew Gaius was hugging him with a surprisingly strong grip for a man his age.

"What is going on Gaius?"

Gaius pulled him into his room, on the pretext of not disturbing the unconscious kings, and then told him how Ban and Bors were poisoned at the feast and Claudas and Vortigern had blamed Arthur and left. The poisoned kings could only be cured by magic but Merlin was nowhere to be found and Arthur had spent the last three days searching for him to no avail. Meanwhile, the people had come to the conclusion that Arthur had gone mad and poisoned Ban, Bors, Emrys, and Merlin, and there was talk of dethroning Arthur.

What Merlin found most surprising was when Gaius claimed that most of the backlash against Arthur was generated by people who believed that he had been planning to murder Emrys all along throughout their alliance and wouldn't stand for a king who would betray someone they had come to admire so much. Had people really come to accept him to that extent?

When Merlin asked Gaius where Arthur was, he was surprised to hear that Arthur had asked for directions to the sword in the stone an hour ago and then left the city.

Merlin pulled his cloak out from under his floorboard. He knew what he had to do.

He shoved the cloak under his shirt, snuck out through the physician's chambers and ducked into a nearby room to put it on before returning. When he walked into the room as Emrys, there was a sudden excitement as the knights saw him and eagerly ushered him to their kings.

Fortunately, most poisonings could be cured by a general healing spell and Merlin incanted over each of them, "Ic pe purhhæle pinu licsar!"

The kings both started breathing much easier and colour returned to their faces. Slowly, their eyes fluttered open.

"What happened?" asked King Bors.

"You were poisoned," explained Gaius, "but Emrys has cured you."

"Gaius," said Merlin, drawing him back and leaving the king's men to explain the rest of the situation to them. "Can you go and assemble people in the throne room?"

Gaius gave Merlin a questioning look, but he gave no response and Gaius couldn't even see his expression. Sometimes it was nice not having his face visible, since Gaius simply left to do as he had asked.

Merlin turned his attention back to Ban and Bors, who had gotten to their feet and were looking glad to be alive.

"Can you walk?" he asked them.

"I believe so," answered Ban, and he added, "It seems you have saved my life. I will be forever in your debt."

King Bors stepped forward as well and took Merlin's hand in his. "I too am indebted to you."

"It was nothing," said Merlin. "But I do need your help. The people think that King Arthur poisoned you and killed me, we need to show them that this is not the case."

The two kings agreed gladly and followed Merlin to the throne room, where Gaius had already rounded up a bunch of people. When Merlin and the kings walked in, the room filled with a buzz as dozens of people started whispering to each other. Merlin waited at the front of the room, as more people were coming in, until the number of people entering the room had slowed to a trickle.

"I must apologize for my late response to the summons," Merlin said, addressing the whole room. "I was waylaid, but fortunately was able to arrive in time to save our honoured guests, King Ban and King Bors."

Merlin had to stop speaking for a moment, as the room burst into applause.

"It has come to my attention that before he left, King Claudas made an accusation against King Arthur regarding who was responsible for the poisoning. However, I have seen no evidence that suggests that King Arthur was in any way responsible. Furthermore, the rumors that King Arthur killed me were… unfounded."

Several people laughed at his last statement. Merlin hadn't been entirely sure about coming forward to talk to the people like this, since he didn't technically have the authority to summon a council, but the people seemed to be hanging on his every word.

"But today is a momentous day," he continued. "King Arthur has gone forth to the sword in the stone to draw it out and make his claim as the rightful king of Camelot. I ask you all to accompany me to witness this historic event."

The people burst into excited murmurs at that pronouncement and did not hesitate for a second to follow Merlin as he made his way out of the city towards the sword's clearing. As they passed through the town, many more people saw and joined the group of people leaving the city.

Merlin had decided to simply act as though Arthur drawing out the sword had been a foregone conclusion and not even address the issue of the current talk of dethroning him. If he acknowledged it, it would simply put unnecessary doubt in people's minds, whereas this way they would see solid proof that Arthur was the rightful king and all whispers to the contrary would die away.

Even when Merlin had made up the legend of the sword he had not realized how useful it would turn out to be. The idea had been to help people accept Arthur changing the laws about magic because it was foretold that the king who drew out the sword would lay down new laws for the good of all. But with Arthur's claim to the throne being questioned, a sword that could only be drawn out by the true king was just what they needed right now.

When they arrived at the clearing, Arthur was nowhere to be seen, but that did not deter Merlin.

"Everyone gather round," he called to the people. "I will bring the king here."

He left them all finding positions where they would have a good view of the stone and wandered into the woods, casting a spell that he had used a couple times before that allowed him to track Arthur.

When Merlin found Arthur, he was sword-fighting with a bandit. He supposed he should have expected no less. Five other bandits lay on the ground around Arthur, who was looking rather worn down by the effort of fighting them all off. The man Arthur was currently fighting was wielding a massive axe and was decked out in more armour and weapons than a usual bandit, which meant he was probably their leader.

Merlin stayed back, waiting for Arthur to finish his last opponent. Then, with a particularly heavy swing of the bandit's axe, Arthur's sword was cleaved in half. Arthur jumped back to prevent himself from being hit by the bandit's axe and then lunged forward and tackled the man. However, the bandit spun to the side and used Arthur's forward momentum against him to swing him to the ground and aim his axe at Arthur's neck.

Merlin's eyes glowed and the bandit flew back, hit a tree and fell to the ground.

Arthur looked up.

"Merlin," he said quietly.

Merlin was touched by the look of sheer relief and gladness on Arthur's face at the sight of him. Arthur wasn't one to show emotions much, so it wasn't often that Merlin saw a real indication that beneath all his manly posturing, Arthur really did care for him.

Then Arthur's expression changed.

"Where have you been?!" he shouted.

"I was kidnapped by Vortigern," Merlin explained briefly. He could get into that later.

"Kidnapped," Arthur repeated blankly and then gave a slightly hysterical laugh. He sounded like he was at some kind of emotional breaking point. "And here was I thinking you had simply realized that I am no kind of king. I thought you had abandoned me and I couldn't even blame you."

Arthur tossed aside the hilt of his broken sword and continued his self-deprecating talk, "Look, I'm supposed to be a knight and I don't even have a sword. What is a knight without a sword? Nothing – even less than nothing."

Honestly, Arthur could be so childish sometimes.

"There is more to a king than a crown and far more to a knight than a sword," Merlin answered.

"It doesn't matter, I'm a nobody now."

Merlin walked up to Arthur, who was still sitting on the ground where he had fallen, and pulled him to his feet.

"If you are so set on having a sword, follow me. I know where there is a great sword for you."

"If you mean the one in the stone, I already tried pulling it out. I couldn't release it."

Ah, that would explain Arthur's current defeatist attitude.

"You just need to believe, Arthur. Trust me, you are the man destined to draw out that sword – but you can only do it if you truly believe yourself to be that king."

Arthur seemed to perk up a bit at Merlin's words, looking, for the first time since Merlin had found him, like he had a shred of hope. He followed behind Merlin, who led him back towards the stone.

Merlin had failed to mention that the sword couldn't actually tell whether someone was a worthy king or not and the only force that could free it was his magic. But he figured it would be better if Arthur kept believing in the legend. He really needed the confidence boost right about now.

When they entered the clearing and Arthur saw the crowd of people gathered around, he turned to Merlin and hissed, "What are all these people doing here? Are you trying to make me look like a fool?"

"Arthur, you are the true king of Camelot," Merlin said firmly. "If you truly believe that, you will be able to draw out that sword. These people are here to witness it."

Arthur looked around at the people gathered and seemed to realize that there was no backing out now that they had all seen him. He slowly approached the sword but stopped a step away from it. Merlin saw him close his eyes and square his shoulders. He must be conjuring up some belief in himself. Good, Merlin thought, he certainly needed it. After a moment Arthur opened his eyes and stepped up to the sword. He grasped it firmly with his right hand and pulled.

Merlin's eyes glowed golden and the sword slid out of the stone with ease. Arthur held it high and every eye in that clearing looked on the glistening sword with awe. There was a moment of complete silence before Sir Leon called out, "Long Live the King!"

As the crowd took up the cry and the clearing filled with the people repeating that phrase, Arthur lifted the sword higher, drinking in their cheers. Merlin smiled and laughed a little in relief. Arthur was going to be ok. He had gotten his confidence back and the people of Camelot had regained their faith in him.

When the cheers finally died down Arthur commanded the attention of the crowd with ease.

"By claiming this sword, I swear to lead Camelot to a time of peace and prosperity for all!"

Arthur had to pause for a moment as more cheers burst out, before he continued, "The legend goes that the king who draws out the sword will lay down new laws for the good of the land and I wish to make one such announcement now."

Arthur paused for effect and there was not a sound in the clearing as everyone listened in anticipation.

"We have all witnessed the good that can come from magic through the great works of our friend and ally, Emrys. I therefore declare that magic will no longer be outlawed in Camelot!"

To Merlin's astonishment, the crowd burst into another round of enthusiastic cheers. He stood stunned himself. He had no idea that Arthur was going to do that. At least not here and now. Magic was... magic was legal. He was free. He had no words to describe how he was feeling at the moment. For the first time in his life his very existence was not a crime.

He had dreamed of this day and now that it had actually come to pass he could hardly believe that it was not a fantasy. His mind struggled to grasp the reality of what had happened – that from this moment on, he was free to be who he was. He didn't have to hide anymore.

He felt ridiculous tears pool in his eyes as he stared at Arthur, who was still holding the sword aloft in acknowledgement of the cheering crowd around him. That man. Merlin would follow that man to the ends of the earth. His King Arthur.

**Notes: **

**Vortigern is one of my favourite Arthurian characters. I couldn't resist writing my own version of his story.**

**And apparently this was just my chapter for adapting Arthurian legends because, apart from all the Vortigern and sword in the stone stuff, the line "There is more to a king than a crown and far more to a knight than a sword" was a direct quote from the book The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights. (So credit to John Steinbeck for that line). The scene with the bandits was **_**very **_**loosely based on the scene in that book where Merlin says it.**

**If you are wondering why Arthur didn't know about the sword from Merlin explaining stuff to him before, Merlin did tell Arthur about the sword forged in a dragon's breath but he just said that he hid it where no one could get to it. Arthur did not make the connection with the sword in the stone because – why would he? **

**And yes, I know Merlin is lying to Arthur again. But old habits die hard and from his point of view he is doing it for Arthur's own good so it doesn't even occur to him that maybe he should be honest about the sword.**


	6. Chapter 6 – Gwaine

**Chapter 6 - Gwaine**

Gwaine watched as the crowd of people dispersed and headed back to Camelot, talking excitedly of the event they had just witnessed and Arthur's announcement. His eyes were on one man though – Emrys. He was glad that Arthur had regained the support of the people but he had something far more pressing to worry about. In all the excitement, it seemed that everyone else had forgotten that Merlin was still missing. Gwaine hadn't forgotten though, and now he had his sights on the one man he believed to know the whereabouts of his missing friend.

Gwaine had had more dealings with sorcerers than most people in Camelot. There was never a dull moment when magic was involved and it made for some great stories, but sorcerers did have a tendency to stab you in the back. Or maybe that's just the ones you're likely to meet in shady pubs. In any case Gwaine had been highly suspicious of Emrys' motives from the start. Of course, he didn't say anything about it because people in Camelot were prejudiced enough about magic already. The last thing he wanted to do was give them more reason to hate magic when there really wasn't anything wrong with it in and of itself. They distrusted magic because they didn't understand it. Gwaine was wary of it because he did understand. Practitioners of magic were shunned from society, even in places where it was legal, and outcasts tended to learn that to survive in this world they had to look out for themselves and no one else. Magician was not synonymous with criminal, but the two did tend to go hand in hand. Which was probably why Gwaine had met a fair few sorcerers in his day, come to think of it.

It seemed to Gwaine that Emrys did not gain much from his alliance with Camelot. He had seen enough of the world to know that when a deal is in your favour, you had better be on the lookout for hidden motives. He didn't know what Emrys wanted with Arthur, although Gwaine doubted it was simply to help him. But his immediate concern was what Emrys wanted with Merlin.

The people in the city had thought that Arthur had killed both Emrys and Merlin, and while that was clearly absurd, it could not be denied that they had both disappeared at the same time. Emrys had done something to Merlin, Gwaine was certain of it. What else besides magic could have caused Merlin to vanish without a trace? Whatever the sorcerer thought he could gain by abducting the king's servant, Gwaine wasn't having it. He was going to get Merlin back no matter what it took.

Emrys walked in a different direction than the people going back to Camelot, heading deeper into the forest. No doubt he planned to do his little disappearing act and return to whatever his secret identity in the castle was. Gwaine quietly followed. The key to getting one over a sorcerer was to catch them off guard and cover their mouth or hold their hands behind their backs so that they couldn't cast spells. Well, that or get them so drunk that they slur all their spells, but that probably wouldn't work in this situation.

Emrys suddenly stopped moving and looked around. Gwaine darted behind a tree, hoping he hadn't been seen. Had Emrys realized that someone was following him? Emrys started walking back towards where Gwaine was hidden and he stiffened. He was only going to have one chance at this.

Emrys drew near and Gwaine lunged. He knocked Emrys over and held him to the ground, pulling his hands behind his back. Then suddenly he found himself flying backwards through the air and he landed in a heap in a pile of leaves. Then Gwaine remembered that the first time he had seen Emrys, the man had been able to use magic without waving his hands or speaking like most sorcerers had to and he suddenly realized how futile his plan had been.

As he scrambled to regain his feet, Emrys, who was also just standing up from where he had fallen said in surprise, "Gwaine!"

So the sorcerer knew his name. Gwaine drew his sword and pointed it at Emrys. It didn't matter that the sorcerer had every advantage over him; he wasn't going to give up.

"Where's Merlin?" he demanded.

"What?" said Emrys, sounding shocked.

"I know you did something to him, where is he?"

"I didn't do anything to Merlin!"

"So I'm supposed to believe that it was just a coincidence that you disappeared for three days and suddenly Merlin is nowhere to be found?"

"Don't worry, Merlin is fine."

Gwaine tightened his grip on his sword. So Merlin was still alive. Emrys hadn't killed him yet, which meant there was still hope. But now that Emrys had admitted that he was holding Merlin, Gwaine needed to keep his cool as he tried to negotiate his friend's release.

He kept his voice as stable as possible as he asked, "Where is he?"

Emrys did not answer at first, but stood there motionless and silent. Gwaine forced himself to wait for Emrys to make the next move. Unable to see the man's face, he could not guess the meaning behind his hesitation to respond.

Then Emrys reach up to his hood and Gwaine readied himself for whatever trick he was about to play. Emrys pulled back his hood and the next thing Gwaine knew, Merlin was standing before him.

"I'm right here," he said quietly.

Gwaine gaped. Merlin was Emrys.

Gwaine's surprise was matched only by his relief. Merlin was safe – not being held prisoner by a powerful sorcerer. In fact he _was_ a powerful sorcerer. Merlin was a sorcerer. Good freaking grief. All this time and he had never suspected a thing. Even when he had heard rumors that Merlin was Emrys, he had dismissed any notion of it and assumed that Emrys must have kidnapped Merlin – which was actually quite funny when he thought of that now.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Gwaine," Merlin said nervously.

Gwaine realized that Merlin was worried about how he was taking this revelation. And who could blame him? He was a sorcerer who lived in Camelot of all places. He must have been terrified of anyone finding out. Gwaine needed to reassure Merlin that he was ok with it. He couldn't show Merlin that he was still reeling to get over the fact that his best friend was not who he had always thought he was. He was sure he would get used to it soon enough, so right now he needed to give Merlin a reaction that would set his mind at rest.

"You should play cards, Merlin," he said, sheathing his sword.

"What?" Merlin didn't seem to have been expecting that response.

"It's all about bluff you see," said Gwaine, grinning. "You need to pretend like you can't play anything, when really, you have a winning hand. This is brilliant - next time I go to the tavern I'm bringing you along and placing all my money on you."

Merlin visibly relaxed. He even hesitantly grinned a little.

"You would lose your bet, seeing as how I don't know how to play cards," he said.

"I'll teach you. It'll be fun. It's always more interesting going to a tavern with a sorcerer anyways. I used to know this guy who could do a refilling spell on an empty mug of ale – saved me a ton of money. Of course, I lost all that money when he slipped me a tickling potion and robbed me while I was busy rolling around on the floor laughing my head off at absolutely nothing. He just casually dug through my bags right in front of me and emptied them of anything valuable while I was laughing too hard to do anything about it."

Gwaine was suddenly struck by the thought that his choice of story might make Merlin think he was prejudiced against sorcerers.

"But I know you wouldn't do that to me," he finished lamely.

"I would never use my magic against you, Gwaine," said Merlin, giving Gwaine the impression that his last statement had worried Merlin, rather than reassured him. "I was born with magic but I'm still the same person."

"Merlin," Gwaine placed his hand on Merlin's shoulder, causing him to fall silent. "It's ok. You don't have to explain."

Silence fell between them for a moment before Gwaine broke it by asking, "Does anyone else know?"

"Just Gaius, Arthur and Gwen," Merlin replied. "Oh, and my mother."

Arthur knew? So that's why he had been so uncharacteristically trusting of Emrys.

"When did Arthur find out?" he asked.

Gwaine would have loved to see Arthur's face for that revelation.

"A few months ago, when…"

"When Arthur ordered you to be killed on sight!" Gwaine said angrily, cutting off Merlin, as the sudden realization hit him.

"That wasn't because of the magic though," said Merlin.

Gwaine calmed down. He remembered now how Arthur had explained to them all after that event how he had been tricked by Morgana into falsely believing that Emrys was an enemy. Poor Merlin must have had his secret discovered at the worst possible time.

But if only three other people in Camelot knew his identity, and even that was a recent discovery, Merlin must have felt incredibly lonely having to keep something like that to himself for so long.

"You should tell Elyan, Percival and Leon," Gwaine said.

"What?" Merlin sputtered.

The three other knights in their little band were almost as fond of Merlin as he was. He was sure that they would be ok with it. Besides, magic was legal now – what could they do?

"I mean it, you should tell them. I want to see the looks on their faces when they find out!"

"I don't know about that," said Merlin hesitantly.

"Come on Merlin, magic is legal now. There's no reason to hide anymore."

Merlin seemed to think that there was reason to hide. He was fidgeting nervously with the sleeve of his cloak and looking more like a startled rabbit than a powerful sorcerer.

"What is the point of magic being legal if you have to keep hiding?" Gwaine asked.

When Merlin did nothing but swallow nervously, Gwaine continued with a new argument. "Besides, up 'til now you had an excuse not to tell anyone since magic was illegal. But if you don't tell your friends now, how are you going to explain why you were still hiding from them when they do find out?"

"Well… ok," said Merlin finally looking as though he had steeled his resolve. "You do have a point."

"Great! Put your hood up and stay here while I go get them. We'll surprise them! It'll be great!"

Merlin gave Gwaine an exasperated look, but put his hood back up.

Gwaine ran back to the groups of people heading back towards Camelot and caught up with Leon, Elyan and Percival.

"Come on," he said, trying to act casual, "there's something you need to see."

"What is it, Gwaine?" asked Leon suspiciously.

"It's a surprise! You'll have to come see for yourself."

Gwaine led the three other knights back to where he had left Merlin, trying to hide his smirk at the thought of the big shock they were about to get. Their confused looks turned curious when they saw Gwaine walk right up to Emrys.

"This is the surprise!" said Gwaine, hardly able to contain his excitement. "The true identity of Emrys!"

He held his hands out to present Emrys as the focus of their attention.

They all stared in anticipation as Emrys reached up to lower his hood. This was going to be good, thought Gwaine.

The hood was pulled back and Merlin was revealed to them.

The three knights laughed in relief and their expressions turned to gladness.

"Merlin!" said Elyan excitedly. "We've been looking for you everywhere!"

"I'm glad you're safe," said Leon, sounding relieved.

"Where have you been?" asked Percival

Gwaine was confused by their reactions. Had they completely missed the fact that Merlin was Emrys? They were acting as though they had simply found Merlin hiding behind a tree and the whole revealing the identity of Emrys thing had not happened.

"Uh," said Merlin, who appeared equally confused by their reactions. "I was kidnapped by Vortigern."

"Vortigern?" said Elyan angrily.

"How did you get away?" asked Leon.

"It's… kind of a long story," said Merlin nervously, still seemingly stunned by their lack of concern about the fact that he had magic.

Gwaine exchanged a glance with Merlin.

"Um, about…" said Merlin, looking down at the cloak he was still wearing.

Elyan laughed, "Yeah, you really had me going! Where did you get the cloak? It looks just like the one Emrys wears."

Merlin and Gwaine both stared at him in shock. They thought the whole thing had been a prank? Would he or Merlin joke about something like this? Well – yes, Gwaine realized, but that was beyond the point.

"That's because Merlin really is Emrys," Gwaine said, only inspiring more laughter from his fellow knights.

Gwaine exchanged another look with Merlin. This was not going at all as planned.

"Come on, let's get back to Camelot," said Elyan, turning to go.

The others followed suit and they began to walk away.

Gwaine turned to Merlin, who was staring blankly at the knight's retreating backs, and said, "Come on then, do something magical!"

As Merlin took half a second to think before holding out a hand, Gwaine suddenly had a brilliant idea.

"Wait," he said, grabbing Merlin's arm and forestalling whatever he had been about to do. "Make me fly!"

"What?" said Merlin, now looking at Gwaine as if he had gone mad.

"Pick me up with magic and make me fly over in front of them! It'll be great!"

Merlin gave him a very long look before directing his hand toward Gwaine and saying, "Fleogan," with a look of deep concentration.

Gwaine felt himself being lifted slowly into the air and had a moment of pure elation as he hung weightlessly above the ground feeling surprisingly comfortable, while his stomach whooped in excitement. And then suddenly his stomach flipped as he was lurched backward so fast that his vision became a blur and the next thing he knew he was crashing painfully into the ground in front of the knights.

Gwaine took a moment to regret asking Merlin to use magic on him that, in hindsight, he was probably more used to using as a battle move than a fun trick, before looking up to see the reactions of his fellow knights on seeing Merlin magically fly him through the air. Elyan, Percival and Leon were indeed looking down at him, but didn't seem as impressed by his miraculous flight as he had imagined they would be.

Percival offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet, asking, "What on earth are you doing, Gwaine?"

"Didn't you see…?" Gwaine trailed off as he looked at their faces and realized they had all missed what had just happened. Did they think he had just dive-bombed himself into the ground in front of them?

"But… Merlin," he said, waving his hand uselessly in Merlin's direction, as the knights looked bewildered between Merlin and Gwaine.

Then Merlin, with a tone that suggested he was trying very hard to suppress frustration, half shouted, "Besniwe!"

Immediately, Gwaine's vision was filled with white flakes whirling in the wind around him, piling up at his feet and hitting his bare skin with a cold, wet touch. It was snowing.

Leon, Percival and Elyan all stiffened and grabbed the hilts of their swords. That had certainly gotten their attention, but Gwaine didn't like the look of the ready-to-fight stances they were taking.

"Magic is legal now," he reminded them warningly.

Elyan let go of his sword, looking somewhat chided, while Percival merely looked confused.

"Does Arthur know about this," asked Leon, still clutching the sword in his belt and staring intently at Merlin.

"Yes," replied Merlin, meeting his gaze.

Leon glanced at Gwaine for a moment, as if looking for confirmation of Merlin's words. Then he too let go of his sword and relaxed his posture.

"So you were Emrys the whole time?" Elyan asked.

"Yes," Merlin replied simply.

Gwaine resisted the urge to point out what a stupid question that was. Honestly, did he think there was more than one Emrys? Obviously his friends needed more time to come to terms with this revelation so he decided to address another more practical concern.

"Can you stop this ruddy snow?" he asked, brushing the cold white powder off of his head and arms, and clutching his hands together to stop them from going numb.

"Um, we should head back to Camelot," Merlin said. He walked away from the snowy clearing, one instant trudging through foot-deep snow and the next leaving snowy footprint in the grass between the trees.

"Hang on," said Gwaine, following Merlin outside of the area enchanted to snow and feeling instantly warmer, "are you saying you don't know how to stop it?"

"It will stop on its own and melt soon enough," Merlin said evasively.

"And until then anyone passing by will be completely perplexed by the mini winter in the middle of the woods," Gwaine said, rather enjoying the thought.

"I wonder if that sort of thing will be more common, now that magic is legal?" said Elyan, while knocking the snow off of his boots, sounding only slightly apprehensive.

"I sure hope so," said Gwaine, trying to create some enthusiasm about Merlin's magical abilities for his overly-cautious friends. "Bits of winter in summer, bits of summer in winter. Whatever you want, whenever you want it, just call on our friendly neighbourhood Emrys!"

Gwaine thumped Merlin good-naturedly on the back. He hoped it wasn't his imagination, but he felt like the mood of their group had improved a bit.

Suddenly Percival stepped forward, looking serious, held out his hand to Merlin and said, "Thank you for helping Camelot."

Merlin looked surprised, but shook Percival's hand. The whole interaction seemed strangely formal to Gwaine.

Percival backed up and nodded once at Merlin, adding, "You have my trust."

"And mine," said Elyan stepping forward.

Everyone looked at Leon, who looked surprised to suddenly be the center of attention.

"If Arthur trusts you, then I trust you," he said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well that's that then," said Gwaine, clapping his hands together, no longer able to stand the solemn atmosphere that had fallen over them. "Just don't ask him to make you fly until he has had some more practice with that spell."

Merlin grinned.

**Notes:**

**I'm not sure why everyone always assumes that Gwaine had nothing but great experiences with magic before he came to Camelot. Most sorcerers that would be hanging out in places Gwaine tended to frequent were probably quite sketchy people. And Gwaine tended not to get along with people very much in any case. **

**The others might not have thought the whole Merlin is Emrys thing was a prank if it wasn't for the way Gwaine was presenting him with a half-smirk and waiting to see their responses. **


	7. Chapter 7 – The Impossible Problem

**Chapter 7 – The Impossible Problem**

Merlin felt a strange sense of unreality as he walked back to Camelot. It really happened. Magic was legal and all his closest friends knew about him. He kept expecting to snap back to normality as if this could only be some fevered daydream.

He forced himself to stop dwelling on his new situation because he had more urgent things to worry about, namely, King Claudas. This was far from over.

Merlin, with his hood back up, made a beeline for the council chambers as soon as he arrived at the castle, followed by the knights. He was relieved to find that Arthur was there and in deep discussion with his councillors and knights, who must have followed him back here from the forest with questions and concerns about the new laws. Kings Ban and Bors were also present, standing back a bit but listening.

However, whatever discussion Arthur was having about the new laws, it would have to wait. He seemed to have forgotten a more pressing matter.

"Sire," Merlin called across the room, as he strode over to the group, "an urgent matter requires your attention."

The room fell silent as everyone waited for him to continue, giving Merlin a very bizarre feeling. He wondered if he would ever get used to the attention he could so easily command as Emrys.

"I believe I may have an idea as to who it was who poisoned King Ban and King Bors and why."

"Who?" asked Arthur.

"During the feast, King Claudas tried to involve me in a plan to overthrow King Ban and King Bors and take their kingdoms. I believe after I refused to help him, he may have turned to poisoning them and then accusing King Arthur as a means to quickly ride back north and invade their kingdoms while their kings were out of action."

Ban and Bors exchanged a look. Ban looked shocked, while Bors appeared more like a man whose worst fears were confirmed.

"King Arthur," said Bors, "please, you must send help to our kingdoms. If this is true, Claudas could already be attacking. It may already be too late."

Arthur crossed him arms, his face serious and certainly very unhappy. "Sending an army of Camelot to the northern kingdoms would be no simple task. Our relationship with Essetir is much more strained than yours. Lot would never allow us to pass unchallenged through his lands. It may be possible to pass through Annis' lands but the delay that would cause would make it almost impossible to arrive in time to be of any help."

The room was silent for a moment as the occupants all took in what Arthur has said. It was certainly true and Merlin was attempting to think of a way around the situation. Judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, they were also trying to find a solution to the impossible problem before them. After a moment, it was Arthur who broke the silence, "We need to know for sure what the situation is. Do you have proof that Claudas was behind the poisonings or that he is planning an attack?"

Merlin looked at Arthur, whose face seemed desperate for there to be another explanation. "I can only tell you conjecture, but I can think of no other explanation as likely as that."

"If only we could be sure," said Arthur.

"Sire," said Gaius, stepping forward. "There is a way to find out what really happened and what Claudas' actions after leaving Camelot were."

Every eye turned to Gaius and Arthur asked in hopeful surprise, "How?"

"There is a magical object in the vaults of Camelot that would allow a sufficiently powerful sorcerer to see current and past events, even from far away."

Merlin felts his insides turn cold. Surely Gaius couldn't mean what he thought he meant.

"The crystal of Neahtid," Gaius finished.

Darn it.

"Sir Leon, bring the crystal here, as quick as you can," said Arthur, his look of excitement giving Merlin a foreboding feeling. Arthur had no idea what that crystal could do. He had never known before what the crystal was for beyond being somehow magical, so it was natural that he had so easily accepted Gaius' neat and tidy explanation of it as a means of seeing things from far away.

Merlin was cursing himself for not yet bringing up the topic of crystals in all the chats he had had with Arthur about the magical going-ons in Camelot that Arthur had been unaware of at the time. It had been hard enough to admit to Arthur that he had been the one to release the great dragon that he hadn't wanted to add that he had foreseen those events beforehand. And Arthur had never asked him about the events connected to the time he went to the crystal cave because he was unaware of all that had happened and Merlin had so far not got around to bringing it up, not being terribly keen on talking about it.

"Emrys," Arthur continued, turning to him. "you will use the crystal and we will know what Claudas is up to."

Merlin licked his dry lips before speaking, "Sire, that crystal…"

"That crystal," Gaius cut him off, looking very pointedly at Merlin, "is a powerful artifact and should not be used lightly. An untrained sorcerer may be forced to see things that are better left unseen. However, one whose power is greater than that of the crystal has control over what it shows them."

Gaius tilted his head down and raised his eyebrows slightly when he finished speaking, and Merlin understood what he was trying to say. The last time Merlin had used the crystal he was not experienced enough in magic to control it or prepared enough to understand it. But that had been years ago. Clearly Gaius felt that Merlin was now at a level where he was powerful enough to master and control the magic of the crystal. It was both touching to know that Gaius thought so highly of his abilities and frightening to know what was expected of him now.

Arthur, whose excitement had been somewhat punctured by Gaius' words, turned worried eyes towards Merlin and started to ask, "Emrys, can you…"

But this time Merlin cut him off, "I can wield the crystal. We shall soon know the truth." He tried to sound more confident than he felt.

When Leon returned with the crystal, Merlin approached it apprehensively. However, as he neared it he realized that he felt different from last time. On both occasions when he had been near these crystals before, they had called to him and their magical buzzing in his head had overwhelmed him and forced him to look at the images of the past and future they presented to him. This time, he felt an unmistakable magical buzz from the crystal, but it was more like a comforting hum than an overwhelming force. It was certainly not near the kind of level that could overpower him. Was this really the same crystal of Neahtid that he had seemed like such a powerful object before? It was only now that he realized how much his own powers must have grown in only the last few years. It was very similar to the sensation he had experienced several times on returning as an adult to a place where he had played as a child only to find it was not nearly as big as he remembered.

Filled with new confidence, Merlin took the crystal from Leon and studied it. He could feel the magic of the crystal and connected it to his own. An image of himself as a young man arriving in Camelot for the first time flashed in the crystal, followed by an image of Arthur knighting Lancelot, followed by an image of his mother asking Uther for help. Merlin sent a surge of his magic into the crystal, willing it to stop the images and the crystal went blank again. Taking control of the crystal has been that easy. He felt himself smiling. Gaius was right, he had perfect control over this.

He willed the crystal to show him where Claudas had gone after leaving Camelot. An image appeared of Claudas riding out of Camelot and into the forest. Ok, he needed something a little bit later than that. He forced the image to jump ahead showing him Claudas' destination, but to his surprise Claudas had not returned to his own kingdom. He rode into Essetir and entered Lot's castle. Merlin dove deeper into the image of the crystal, wanting to both see and hear what had happened inside the castle. The deeper he immersed himself in the image, the more it felt like he was there himself and he began to not only see Claudas but hear the sound of his boots stomping along a marble floor and echoing off the stone walls of the hallway he was walking through. The clearer the image of Claudas, the less aware Merlin became of his surroundings in his current real location. Arthur and Camelot seemed much further away than Claudas and the castle of Essetir.

King Claudas walked through a spacious corridor, followed by his entourage. He hardly spared a glance towards the unique decorations lining the walls of the hallway. Between the elaborate tapestries and weapons displays, at intervals of one every few yards, long spikes poked out of the wall at a sharp upwards angle. On nearly every spike was the severed remains of a human head. Some were practically still dripping blood, while others were beginning to rot. However, none were so old as to be unrecognizable to those who would have known the person in life. Clearly once enough time had passed that displaying the head of an enemy could do no more to serve as a warning to those who knew what the person had done to warrant such a punishment, the remains were disposed of to make room for new faces. But Claudas did not slow his pace or look into the eyes of the dead as one might who was rethinking his march through a hallway which was clearly intended to intimidate all those approaching the thick wooden doors at the far end. He had eyes only for the doors, which were guarded by two men wearing the uniforms of the knights of Essetir.

As Claudas approached the end of the corridor, the guards pushed the doors open to allow him through and he strode forward as though he owned the place into a large throne room. A dozen guards of Essetir stood at attention along the sides of a long black carpet that formed a path from the entrance all the way to a large throne at the far side of the room. Upon the throne sat a man who looked out with cold, hard eyes at his visitor and made no gesture of greeting or even the slightest movement to acknowledge the presence of another person before his throne. The only movement from the occupants of the room came from slightly behind and to the right of the throne, where a man dressed entirely in grey, with a curtain of straight silver hair that fell nearly to his waist, stood discretely behind the king. He now stepped out a little bit into the open to better see the king who had entered.

"King Lot, I am honoured to be welcomed in your kingdom," said Claudas with a big grin, raising his arms in an exaggerated gesture of comradery, once he had crossed over to the throne.

"Why are you here, Claudas?" asked King Lot, still remaining devoid of any gesture or facial expression. "I gave you permission to pass through my lands. I don't remember asking you to pay me a social call."

"I am here on business that I believe will benefit us both."

"And what, pray tell, is that?"

"As you know, I and the other kings of the north recently visited Camelot for what I believed to be merely a gesture of goodwill. But I must tell you that I was shocked to find that for the others it was much more devious than that! It was not a visit of good faith but a ploy to gather and plot against your kingdom! Arthur, Ban and Bors mean to take your land. They are plotting to attack you from each of their kingdoms at once so that you must defend against attacks from both the north and south. It was such a diabolical scheme I could scarcely believe I was hearing it. But do not fear, for I have thwarted them! I pretended to play along and, when they least suspected me, I poisoned the drinks of Ban and Bors. That way, if they survive at all, they will be held up in Camelot for a while yet. Now is our chance! While their kingdoms are leaderless we must strike! With our armies combined, we could take their kingdoms and split the spoils. Only then will your kingdom be safe from their treachery! What do you say, my friend?"

Lot continued to stare coldly at Claudas as he made his impassioned speech. When Claudas finished speaking, Lot made his first movement since Claudas had entered the room, merely sitting up straighter in his throne.

"You are suggesting that with two northern kings out of commission, I can gain half of their lands and riches by joining forces with you?"

"Yes!" Claudas grinned, clearly pleased with how easily Lot understood his plan.

"My kingdom is five times the size of yours and my army far mightier. Tell me, what do I have to gain from your help in this matter?"

For the first time since entering the room, Claudas seemed unsure of himself, "I poisoned Ban and Bors. I came to warn you."

"And now? What use have I of you now? Would it not be better for me if there were three kings of the north out of commission so that I could gain all of that land for myself and not have to share the spoils with anyone?"

"My friend," Claudas started, speaking as though he was thinking very quickly, "I came here seeking an alliance. If one cannot be reached, perhaps I should return to my kingdom."

"Oh, I don't think so," said Lot, as his thus-far expressionless face broke into a smile. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a golden key, which he ran his fingers idly along and said almost lazily, "Belfrost."

In response, the man in grey emerged from behind the throne and raised his hand towards the visiting king. A thick golden bracelet became visible as his sleeve was pulled back with his arm raised, standing out brightly against his dull grey attire. He opened his mouth to speak.

Claudas, finally appearing to fully understand the situation he was in, shouted to the knights he brought with him, "Kill him! Defend your king!"

Claudas' knights rushed forward but the man named Belfrost shouted, "Lyft afaran," and suddenly each of them collapsed on the ground, clutching their throats as though they could not breathe.

Claudas looked around completely at a loss as he watched all the men he brought with him slowly choke to death.

"Please, have mercy!" he cried, "I will help you conquer Ban and Bors' kingdoms and you can keep all the spoils yourself!"

Lot merely grinned as he watched the men dying. The minutes stretched on as Claudas became more and more hysterical, begging to be allowed to leave alive, and one by one, his men stopped moving.

"Now hold him still," Lot said to Belfrost, before turning to one of his guards, "I want his head as a reminder of the foolish king who thought he could impress me with a battle strategy that could have come from the mind of a toddler."

Belfrost directed his hand at Claudas, who was forced to kneel while held in place by magic. One of the guards from the side moved forward and swung his sword at Claudas' neck. His body collapsed on the spot, while the head fell to the side and rolled a bit further before stopping. Belfrost retreated to his place behind the throne, while Lot grinned down at the pile of bodies before him.

"I see your bloodlust is as strong as ever," said a voice from the doorway.

Lot, who had remained sitting throughout his encounter with Claudas, suddenly looked alert and stood up from his throne. His grin vanished and his expression returned to one of cold indifference.

"Morgana," he said in acknowledgment of the newcomer.

"Perhaps now that you have heard how Arthur is plotting to attack your kingdom, you will accept my help in overthrowing him," Morgana said smoothly as she walked forward to stand in the center of the room.

"Time and time again you have tried to convince me to attack Camelot, Morgana. When will you learn I care nothing for your revenge or ambitions? I did not become king by foolishly rushing into battles where the odds are against me. I will take the northern kingdoms and once I have incorporated their armies into my own, I will have the manpower to take on Camelot. That is how a king expands their territory – strategically, not driven by fool emotions."

"If you are so concerned with the best strategy, perhaps you should consider adapting Arthur's."

"What do you mean?" Lot asked, still eyeing Morgana with more annoyance than interest in her suggestions.

"I have just come from making a deal with Helios. If I send him word that you are willing to attack Camelot from the north, he will lead the Southrons to attack from the south. Even Camelot cannot defend against multiple armies attacking at opposite borders of the kingdom."

Lot's eyebrows rose slightly, for the first time he appeared somewhat intrigued by Morgana's words, but he still held firm to his plan as he spoke, "The lands to the north are leaderless and disadvantaged but will likely not remain so for long. If I attack Camelot first, I would be forsaking my advantage against the northern kingdoms."

"Do you think that Arthur will remain idle while you conquer the northern kingdoms? He will strike while you armies are occupied. You must take Camelot before you are free to expand your kingdom to the north or you will not have a kingdom at all."

Lot remained silent for a moment, glaring at Morgana as though furious at her for speaking of a plan more reasonable than his own.

"Fine," he spoke at last, "send word to Helios. Let Arthur and all of Camelot woe the day this alliance was formed."

Merlin breathed heavily as he let the image fade away, feeling like he had just run a very long distance. He had to let go of the image and stop using the crystal because he was becoming too tired to continue. Using such powerful magic was exhausting to do for extended periods of time and he found it prudent to end it now that he had heard the enemy's plans rather than needlessly tiring himself out more. As his consciousness fully returned to the here and now, he found himself once again fully aware of Arthur and Gaius and all the other's standing around him. He had never truly stopped knowing they were there, waiting in silence as he used the crystal, but it was as though they had been a mere thought in the back of his mind.

"Well," said Arthur eagerly, when he saw that Merlin had lowered the crystal. "What did you see? Is Claudas attacking?"

"Claudas isn't the problem," said Merlin, and he explained everything that he had seen transpire.

Following the revelation of the attack that was coming to Camelot, the councillors and knights in the room all looked at each other in horror. Arthur stared at the floor with his arms crossed, clearly in deep thought.

It was Gwen who spoke first, "What will we do? If this deal was reached right after Claudas left, then their armies may be almost at our borders even as we speak. Camelot's army cannot fight off both Lot's and Helios' armies at once. Trying to support two fronts at our northern and southern borders would be suicide."

Everyone looked to Arthur. What would he say? Even as Merlin had reported the situation to Arthur, he knew how hopeless it was. Finally Arthur looked up and the determination emanating from his eyes raised Merlin's spirits slightly.

"There is one way that we can defend Camelot, only one way," he said seriously. "Lot commands a mighty army, nearly as strong as our own. The only way to defeat him is to send our entire army north. He will not be expecting such forces and may even back off without bloodshed when he sees the numbers he would have to face."

"And what of the army approaching from the south," asked Gaius, as Merlin held his breath, knowing there must be more to the plan.

"Since our army will be occupied to the north we must send something as powerful as an army south. Emrys and I will ride south to deal with Helios and the Southrons."

Everyone gaped at that. Merlin felt his own jaw drop.

"Two men against an entire army?" Gwen gasped.

"Emrys wields powerful magic. I believe we can find a way to stop them."

Merlin realized that many people in the room were now looking at him. Merlin wanted to protest. He wanted to claim that it was impossible, that he couldn't do it. But in spite of himself he had already started trying to think of ways that he could use his magic to stop an army. He had to admit that it might actually work.

"I can try," he said, not wanting to commit and yet not wanting to disagree with Arthur's plan when they really didn't have anything else to work with.

"It is the only way to protect Camelot," Arthur insisted.

"It is a bold plan," Gwen admitted. "It may be risky, but you're right – only by taking this risk can we keep the people of this land safe."

Several councillors nodded their agreement to that assessment. When no one spoke up to suggest another plan, Arthur jumped right into outlining the details. Leon would lead the army to the north with Gwaine, Percival and Elyan as commanders. Gwen would remain in Camelot with a minimal force of guards and knights to secure the city. Ban and Bors would return to their own lands to secure their kingdoms, seeking passage through Annis' lands.

When the talking and planning had finally finished and they all went their separate ways to set about their assigned tasks, Merlin fell into step trailing behind Arthur. He made it down two hallways before he remembered that he was still Emrys and it was rather odd for him to be following a step behind the king as though he was his manservant. He quickly ducked into an empty room and removed the cloak before jogging to catch up to Arthur, who hadn't seemed to notice any of this.

When they arrived in Arthur's chambers, Merlin went to set about packing for their trip and realized that he was still holding the crystal of Neahtid. Then a sudden idea occurred to him.

"Can I bring this?" he asked, holding the crystal up. He was starting to realize just how useful this thing could be if you knew how to use it, and it wasn't doing any good just sitting in the vaults.

Arthur's eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? Didn't Gaius say something about how it shouldn't be used lightly?"

"I'll be careful how I use it," Merlin promised, "and I'm powerful enough to be able to control it easily."

Arthur looked at him for a moment as though judging his sincerity before shrugging and saying, "Aright then, just don't use it to spy on women changing."

Merlin nearly dropped the crystal in his indignant shock. Just what did Arthur take him for?


	8. Chapter 8 – Arthur and Merlin

**Chapter 8 – Arthur and Merlin**

"You can take that cloak off you know. It's just us here."

Merlin looked up at Arthur from the firewood he was collecting from the forest floor, or - at least the shadow-filled hood of Merlin's cloak tilted in his direction. Arthur was finding it very annoying having to travel with someone whose face he could not see properly.

"What if someone sees you travelling with Merlin when you set out with Emrys? They could figure out my identity," Merlin said as though Arthur was being ridiculous.

"So what?" replied Arthur.

Merlin did not say anything or make any movement. Arthur could only assume he must be staring at him in shock, but of course he could not be sure because that stupid cloak made interacting with Merlin like trying to talk to someone through a closed door.

"If someone figures out your identity, what are they going to do? Report you to the king?" Arthur continued when Merlin did not reply.

Merlin was still being annoyingly silent and shadowy so Arthur was forced to continue, "Do you remember what we were talking about before magic was legal?"

"That is a very broad range of topics Arthur," Merlin said mockingly, finally breaking his silence.

Trust Merlin to only participate in a serious conversation in order to make jokes.

"Remember when we were talking about how your half-assed service to me might actually be just barely deserving of some kind of promotion. Well I do find myself in the unprecedented situation of having a position open for a Court Sorcerer, and you know how I hate having unfilled positions on my council."

"You want to hire me to do magic for Camelot? For real?"

Arthur did not know why Merlin's voice sounded like he could barely believe what he was hearing. Surely this was the most obvious development now that magic was legal. For goodness sake, they had already discussed this.

"It wouldn't be that much different than what you were doing as Emrys, except you would get paid this time."

"And I wouldn't have to muck out your stables anymore?" Merlin asked as though his decision was riding on Arthur's answer.

Arthur rolled his eyes.

"No, Merlin, you wouldn't have to muck out the stables anymore."

"Well I suppose that sounds reasonable then," Merlin said as though that point alone had convinced him.

"Ok, but if you want the job you are going to need to open up a bit, Merlin."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, everyone will think I'm mad if I hire you as Court Sorcerer and you continue to pretend to be an idiot with as much magic as a block of wood."

"I never pretended to be an idiot," Merlin said sounding offended.

"No, that part was true," said Arthur quickly. Sometimes Merlin made the insults too easy.

"Clotpole," Merlin snapped back, resorting to childish name calling since he clearly knew that Arthur had won that exchange.

"Do you want the job or not?"

"Of course I do," said Merlin, finally cutting with the jokes and speaking seriously, "but you must understand Arthur, what it would be like for me to come out of hiding. When it comes to magic, secrecy is all I've ever known."

Arthur knew he couldn't really understand how Merlin felt, having no similar experiences to draw from, but he thought he could imagine at least something of what it must be like. But it really didn't matter whether Arthur could empathize with Merlin or not, because in any case what Merlin needed right now was encouragement to take this next step.

"I know that it will be hard for you to change how you have lived up 'til now and that you will be in entirely unknown territory. And I can't guarantee that everyone will react positively, but I promise I will do whatever I can to make sure you are accepted in Camelot. It might take some getting used to, but wouldn't it be better to freely be yourself for all to see, than to continue hiding the best side of you? You are a brave man, Merlin - I don't think that you will regret stepping out into the open."

"You're right, Arthur," Merlin conceded with a sigh after a moment's consideration. "I've dreamed of the day when I wouldn't have to hide anymore. It's just hard to believe that it has already happened."

Merlin pulled the cloak off and tossed it over to his bags.

"I think I'm ready to be myself," he said, looking Arthur in the eyes.

"Then I promise," said Arthur, meeting Merlin's gaze, "that when we return to Camelot I will appoint you Court Sorcerer of Camelot."

"I'll try to do a good job," said Merlin, in what was probably the least pretentious response any new councillor had ever given to being formally appointed by the king. Merlin was clearly not used to gracefully accepting elite positions. But Arthur figured it was at least better than the look of disgust that Merlin had given to accept his position as Arthur's servant.

"Well that's already an improvement on your current work ethic then," said Arthur, breaking the serious atmosphere and enjoying seeing Merlin's insulted expression now that that stupid cloak was off. "I suppose now I can get a proper servant. If I'm lucky I might even have my meals brought on time."

"You'll be spoiled rotten!" said Merlin, sounding dramatically horrified.

"Just think – my bath water might actually be the right temperature for once!"

"Not if I curse your tub to be perpetually cold as a parting gift when I leave your service."

"You wouldn't dare use magic against your king!"

"It would be for the good of the kingdom – to prevent the king from becoming an indulgent noble who needs to be spoon-fed and waited on hand and foot."

"I hardly think a warm bath would cause the kingdom's downfall."

"You underestimate the brain softening effects of extreme comfort. It is a known fact that knights who take cold baths perform better in tournaments."

"You just made that up!"

"Not at all! It was a study performed by a respected scholar. Ask Geoffrey de Monmouth to show you his papers if you don't believe me!"

Arthur paused. It certainly sounded like some nonsense that Merlin had made up, but if he was challenging Arthur to check his source then maybe not. And it did actually make a kind of sense. Maybe a warm bath would relax you to the point of slowing your reflexes, while a cold bath would make you more alert. Perhaps Arthur should try taking cold baths to see whether it improved his training.

Then he saw Merlin sniggering. That lying little -

"Would you just hurry up and make us dinner!" griped Arthur, thoroughly irritated. "Why do you think we stopped here in the first place?"

Merlin, still sniggering to himself, bent down to pick up the firewood that he had started collecting earlier and then dropped in order to remove his cloak.

"You know, you could just use magic for that," said Arthur with a raised eyebrow.

Merlin looked a little bit surprised, like the thought hadn't occurred to him. His eyes glowed golden and pieces of wood flew from their scattered positions on the ground and assembled themselves into a neat pile in the middle of the clearing where Merlin and Arthur had set up camp.

Merlin stood over the pile for a second, as though marvelling at being able to do magic so openly. Arthur could see traces of a smile on his face as he pulled out a set of flints and set about lighting the fire.

"You know, you could just use magic for that," said Arthur, walking to stand over where Merlin was kneeling and smirking down at him.

Merlin looked slightly annoyed and glared at Arthur for a second, but he put the flints down and a moment later a hearty fire was burning. Then he set about unpacking his cooking supplies from his saddle-bags.

Arthur followed Merlin over to the bags and said, "You know, you could just use magic for that."

He was thoroughly enjoying himself.

"I could also use magic to shut your mouth permanently."

"I never knew sorcerers where so touchy," Arthur said, making his voice sound sarcastically offended.

"Perhaps if you have so much time to stand over me and criticize how I do things, you could instead help me," Merlin said, putting his hands on his hips.

"Why should I be expected to help when I have a servant who can do these things with a snap of his fingers?"

"I thought I was being promoted to Court Sorcerer."

"Exactly! I won't have a servant with magic for long, so I need to enjoy the benefits while I can."

"Alright," said Merlin, "but you had better appreciate how good you've got it."

Merlin snapped his fingers and, with a brief golden glow in his eyes, a pot flew onto a stand that assembled itself over the fire, while potatoes and vegetables flew into the air and began peeling and chopping themselves. Merlin stood there grinning at Arthur.

Arthur raised his eyebrows. He hadn't literally meant that he thought Merlin could do magic by snapping his fingers. Sometimes Merlin could be an incorrigible show-off. Long gone were the days when Arthur had assumed that Merlin's occasional cockiness was his way of laughing at his own ineptitude. The most frustrating thing for Arthur was that Merlin had every reason to be cocky about his abilities.

"You'll need to fetch water from the stream," said Arthur in an attempt to wipe the grin off of Merlin's face. "And the horses will need to be watered."

Merlin just smiled as he emptied their water skins into the pot of soup, where the vegetables, dried meat and spices had already started adding themselves. Then he strolled away in the direction of the stream, leading the horses, to refill the water skins and let the horses drink.

Arthur sat down by the fire and watched the soup stirring itself. It was very relaxing watching the ladle move in slow circles, while smelling the distinct scent of Merlin's delicious cooking. It had been a long day of riding and Arthur was really looking forward to that soup.

Suddenly Arthur heard Merlin's voice cry out and the ladle clattered to the edge of the pot as though it had been dropped. He jumped up and ran towards the stream, drawing his sword. What he saw nearly stopped his heart. Merlin lay face down in the stream with a crossbow bolt sticking out his back, the water that was rushing over him turning redder by the second.

"Merlin!" shouted Arthur, running into the stream and splashing his way to Merlin's side. He grabbed Merlin and turned him over to pull his face out of the water, moving him gently onto his lap as he knelt in the water. He let go of the breath he didn't realize he was holding when Merlin immediately began to sputter and cough. He was alive.

"Merlin, can you hear me?"

Merlin's eyes blinked open and he said in a quiet pained voice, "Arthur."

Then his eyes became unfocussed and started to droop and close. Arthur slapped him gently on the cheek and half-shouted, "Merlin! Merlin you have to stay with me! You need to heal yourself! You can heal yourself, right?"

Arthur had witnessed Merlin bring people back from the edge of death as Emrys. Surely he could do the same for himself now. But could he even do magic while in this state?

"It hurts," muttered Merlin. His eyes were closed but he must be awake.

"There's an arrow in your back."

"An arrow," Merlin repeated quietly to himself.

Arthur looked at the arrow. Should he pull it out? The arrow was the only thing blocking most of Merlin's blood from gushing out of the wound and Arthur would never normally consider removing it until the wound could be immediately sealed and bandaged. But what if Merlin needed the arrow removed to heal himself with magic? And should it be pulled out, causing more damage to the entrance side from the blunt end of the arrow tip, or pushed through, further harming internal organs that may not have been touched depending on how deep the arrow was. Arthur could only be grateful the arrow was on the right side of Merlin's chest. If it had been on the left, Merlin would have died instantly.

Arthur was saved from deciding what to do when Merlin muttered, "Penstrael forsweltan," and the arrow shimmered for a second and then vanished into nothing. Blood immediately started streaming out of the wound at an alarming rate and Arthur hurried to put pressure on the wound, trying, and mostly failing, to hold it in.

Merlin's head slumped in Arthur's arm and, with the fear that Merlin had lost consciousness, Arthur yelled at him again, "Merlin! You can't go to sleep now! You need to finish, you stupid clotpole!"

Merlin stirred at Arthur's words.

"Ic pe purhhaele pinu licsar," Merlin whispered and then had to stop to cough up blood before continuing, "mid pam sundorcraeft paere ealdan ae."

A sort of tremor passed like a wave through Merlin's body and the blood stopped pouring from his back. Arthur looked through the tear in his shirt and found no wound where there should have been one. He let out a laugh of relief. It had worked. Merlin had cured himself.

Why did Merlin have to go scaring him like that? For a moment when he saw Merlin lying unmoving in the stream he had thought the worst had already happened. Then even though Merlin was still alive, it had been such a terrible wound that Arthur had been terrified that it would kill Merlin before he could heal it. But now that he had, he would surely be ok. If there was one thing that Merlin had gained from his time helping the people of Camelot as Emrys, it was a mastery of healing spells. Arthur felt his heart rate returning to normal now. He had seen Merlin perform what could only be called miracles of healing before and he was no longer worried that Merlin's life was in danger.

Merlin groaned and coughed up more blood.

"Merlin, are you ok?" Arthur asked, "What happened?"

"Horse thieves," Merlin said matter-of-factly, and then passed out.

Only then did Arthur look around and realize that the horses were gone. Oh well, Arthur figured, he could only worry about one thing at a time. Merlin's breathing seemed strong enough, even if he did occasionally cough up more of the blood that had been filling his punctured lung, and he wasn't bleeding anymore so it was probably best to let him sleep and regain his strength after so much blood loss. Arthur carried him back to the clearing and set him next to the fire so that he would keep warm despite his wet clothes. He removed Merlin's jacket and boots, which would take longer to dry, leaving them separately beside the fire, and draped his red cloak over Merlin. That should keep him warm enough, Arthur thought. It was fortunate the cold season was not yet upon them and they were travelling south where the world held on to the summer heat for longer. Arthur also removed his own boots, which were soaked from running into the stream, and left them by the fire to dry.

The soup on the fire was still cooking and Arthur gave it a stir to make sure the bottom wouldn't burn. There was no point in letting it be ruined. After all, it would be good for Merlin to have something to eat when he woke. As far as Arthur could tell, it looked fully cooked, which must mean that he should take it off the fire to prevent it from burning. Arthur grabbed the handle of the pot and immediately let go, shouting, "Ouch!"

Ok, so the handle was hot. Perhaps that should have been foreseeable, Arthur thought, as he looked down at the strips of skin turning red across his palm and fingers, where the handle had made contact with the hand he closed around it. Wasn't there something he was supposed to do after burning himself? He blew on his hand, the cool air from his breath feeling soothing on the burned skin. Yeah, that was probably it. He continued blowing on it and then an exasperated image of Gaius appeared in his mind. Wait, was that wrong? Suddenly a long forgotten memory surfaced of Gaius lecturing him after he had dripped hot candle wax on himself as a boy, "Put it in cold water right away!"

Ah, yes, that was it. Arthur ran back to the stream and stuck his hand in the water. After a short moment he decided that it was long enough. He really didn't like leaving Merlin alone right now.

When he returned to the clearing, he was relieved to see that Merlin had been safe in his absence, still sleeping soundly. He turned his attention to the soup, stirring it again. It had gone kind of clumpy and brown and was starting to smell distinctly burned. He went to Merlin's bags to search for some means of moving the pot without touching it. He tried to picture how Merlin did it and came up with nothing. Next time Merlin made soup, Arthur decided, he was going to watch closely in case he was ever in a situation like this again. Then he found what appeared to be a metal stick with a hook at the end with Merlin's things. That would work! Arthur went back to the fire and hooked the pot handle onto the metal stick. He lifted the pot and carried it away from the fire. He put the pot down and was about to congratulate himself on figuring out how to use the pot-moving tool, when the dead leaves that were scattered around on the ground where he had put the pot burst into flame.

Darn it, this was why he had servants. He was no good at this sort of thing.

He quickly lifted the pot with the hooked stick again and looked around desperately for what to do with it now. His eyes fell on a rock a few feet away. Rocks don't burn! He put the pot down on the rock and returned to the fire that had started on the ground. It was spreading quickly amongst all the dead foliage littering the forest floor and getting dangerously close to where Merlin lay. Without time to think of what to do, Arthur stomped on the flames, yelling in pain as they burned his feet. Why did this have to happen when he had taken his boots off? But stomping on the flames was actually quite effective at putting them out so he continued until they were all gone.

Arthur glanced over at Merlin. His chest still rose and fell in a relaxed rhythm. He had been unaffected by the flames and the stomping king in the clearing where he lay.

Now limping, Arthur returned to the pot of soup, which had thankfully not started any new fires. He sat down and removed what was left of his burned socks. His feet looked pretty badly burned and he wondered if he should go put them in the stream, but the idea of trying to get there with his feet in such a state made him abandon the idea.

Arthur lifted the ladle from the soup and tried some of it. It tasted burned. Arthur sat on the ground, barefoot and covered in burns, eating bad tasting soup, watching over his gravely injured best friend, and feeling all-around miserable. When night fell, he simply laid down where he was, and eventually fell asleep despite the dull throbbing pain in his feet and hand threatening to keep him awake.

"What on earth happened to you?!"

Arthur opened his eyes to find that the sun had risen and Merlin was standing over him looking horrified.

"Merlin!"

Arthur sat up, wincing as he put pressure on his injured hand without thinking. Thank goodness Merlin was ok!

Merlin knelt beside Arthur and took his hand, examining the burn, which had blistered overnight and now looked really horrible.

"How did this happen," he asked.

"Never mind that," exclaimed Arthur in exasperation. "Are you ok?"

Merlin certainly looked back to normal, but he had been so close to death that Arthur felt sure he must still be somehow affected.

"I'm fine, Arthur," said Merlin dismissively. He placed both his hands around Arthur's injured one and chanted, "Ic haele thina throwunga."

All traces of the burn vanished and Merlin moved to Arthur's feet and repeated the spell on each of them in turn, healing them as well.

However, Arthur was more concerned about Merlin at the moment.

"Sit down, you can't possibly be fine," he said impatiently. "You need to eat something."

Able to tell from the look on Merlin's face that he was going to ignore the order and continue to question him, Arthur placed his hands on Merlin's shoulders and forced him to sit and then shoved the soup ladle into his hands.

"Eat," he ordered.

Merlin, looking slightly bewildered, ate a spoonful of soup. He made a face of disgust and very ungratefully exclaimed, "Ugh, what did you do to it?"

Arthur wanted to smack him.

"I had some problems with the soup last night, ok?! Just eat it!"

Merlin raised his eyebrows, but continued to eat. Arthur could see Merlin's eyes move from the soup, to Arthur's previously burned hand and feet, and to the patch of burned ground a few feet away. It was almost painful for Arthur, watching Merlin put two and two together and start smirking, so Arthur stood up and started pacing around the clearing where he didn't have to look at Merlin.

Now that Merlin was back on his feet, Arthur was forced to consider what they were going to do about their other problem – the lack of horses. There was no way they could make it to the border in time on foot. They might have just enough time for a detour to get the horses back and still make it, but that would be assuming they knew where to go. However, the stream would have allowed the horse thieves to get away without leaving any tracks and they didn't have time to go searching the whole countryside until they found them, so that was out of the question. They could try to get new horses, but there were no noble estates nearby or towns in this area big enough to sell horses and it would be foolish to waste time searching the towns on the off chance that there might be a visitor with a horse or a farmer rich enough to afford a horse rather than a donkey or a mule.

So they couldn't go on foot and they had no way of getting horses. But what other options were there? Then Arthur had a sudden idea. Why hadn't he thought of this before? It could have saved them all this effort from the beginning!

Arthur sat down beside Merlin, who was finishing the last of the soup, and asked, "Can you take us to the border with magic?"

"No, Arthur," Merlin replied as though it were obvious. "We need to get the horses back."

"But I've seen other sorcerers travel by disappearing in a whirlwind. Can't you do that?"

"Are you kidding?" said Merlin incredulously. "That spell is seriously dangerous. Only a nutcase would use it!"

Arthur was about to argue that Morgana had used it and then realized what he was about to say and thought better of it.

"Ok," he said, "but how are we supposed to get the horses back? Did the thieves tell you where they were going before they shot you?"

"No, but I can find them easily enough."

"How?"

"With this," Merlin said, and he grabbed his jacket from where Arthur had left it beside the fire and pulled the crystal of Neahtid out of the pocket.

Oh yeah. Arthur had forgotten about the crystal. Now that he thought about it, it was a really useful thing to have around.

"Can you check on the others?" he asked excitedly. "I want to know how Guinevere is doing. And see if Sir Leon and the others are on track. Oh, and you can see what Lot and Helios are up to! And where Morgana is!"

Why had they left this thing sitting around in the vaults so long? It was going to make everything so much simpler!

Merlin gave him an exasperated look and said, "It's really exhausting using the crystal. I'm just going to find the horses for now, ok?"

Oh. Arthur had no idea magic could be exhausting. Merlin had never seemed to get tired out no matter how much magic he ever used at once so Arthur had never realized. Maybe it was something about the crystal specifically? Arthur's excitement deflated slightly as he realized they couldn't use the crystal to the extent he had started to imagine. Then he saw Merlin hold up the crystal to his line of sight. Arthur, realizing he must be about to use it, grabbed the crystal out of his hand.

"What on earth are you doing?" Merlin exclaimed in surprise.

"You lost a lot of blood last night. Are you sure you're ok to use the crystal now if it is so exhausting? I don't want you passing out on me again."

"I'll be fine, Arthur," Merlin protested. "It won't take long to find the horses. I was just trying to say I don't have the energy to look into the crystal to indulge every one of your whims."

Arthur wanted to protest that it wasn't his fault – how was he supposed to know that Merlin couldn't use the crystal indefinitely. But instead he reluctantly said, "Fine," and handed the crystal back to Merlin.

Merlin held the crystal up and stared into it. Arthur hadn't been able to see his face the last time he used it so he was surprised at how completely transfixed on the crystal Merlin appeared. He had a strange desire to wave his hand in front of Merlin's face to see if Merlin could even still see him, but decided that would be a bad idea.

After a brief moment, much less time than the first time Merlin had used the crystal, Merlin lowered it and suddenly wavered and fell backwards, his eyes rolling up and closing. Arthur leapt forwards and caught Merlin as he fell. Merlin's eyes opened again and he sat back up with his own strength as if nothing had happened.

"You said you wouldn't go fainting on me!" said Arthur angrily. "I told you that you weren't fully recovered!"

"I'm ok," said Merlin, looking irritatingly cheerful, "I just felt dizzy for a second. More importantly, I know where the horses are."


	9. Chapter 9 – Running Out of Fingers

**Chapter 9 – Running Out of Fingers**

Arthur watched Merlin carefully as he lead the way through the forest to retrieve the horses. He did not seem any less well than usual, but his reaction to the crystal proved that he was not at his best right now. That last time he had used it had been for much longer and he hadn't fainted that time.

Another thing that was troubling Arthur was how easily Merlin could have been killed. Arthur realized he had come to think of Merlin as being nearly undefeatable, since he was more powerful than – well basically anyone. But of course things are not always so simple. It wouldn't matter one iota whether Merlin could defeat someone in a direct confrontation if he was attacked from behind, or caught off guard. It was the same principle that made it necessary for Arthur to have guards outside his chambers. Sure he was the kingdom's strongest warrior – but that wouldn't mean squat if an assassin stabbed him in his sleep.

Now Arthur was really starting to worry about Merlin's safety in Camelot. Once he was revealed, he was sure to be a prime target both for anyone still holding on to hatred against magic and for those who would seek to weaken Camelot's defenses. In fact, the most logically strategic move for anyone trying to harm Camelot would be to first eliminate Merlin, who was clearly the best defense Camelot had. Perhaps he should permanently assign guards to Merlin after he was publicly declared Court Sorcerer? No, that would be a near useless idea. Apart from the embarrassment it would be to his court to make it look like his Court Sorcerer needed babysitting, any assassin with their sights set on Merlin would hardly be deterred or even slowed down by a couple of guards.

Why was it, that when fighting sorcerers it had always seem so difficult to find any kind of weakness, and yet when trying to ensure the safety of a sorcerer there seemed to be an insurmountable number of weaknesses in security. Maybe Arthur was thinking about this all wrong. Merlin was the one with incredible powers; shouldn't there be some way he could use magic to make himself less vulnerable?

"Hey Merlin?"

"Hmm?" said Merlin in reply, looking back at Arthur.

"Can you use magic to protect yourself without seeing the attack coming? Like being shot in the back – isn't there something you can do to prevent that sort of thing from happening? Like some sort of magical armor that stops attacks that come from behind?"

Merlin looked thoughtful. "I've heard of spells like that but never looked at them too closely, since it would be a bit of a giveaway if attacks just bounced off of me."

Trust Merlin to ignore any spells in his book that might actually be useful. Arthur was, however, heartened to know that it was possible.

"Well I order you to look into them as soon as possible. I don't want my kingdom to lose its most powerful protector just because you accidentally wander into a rowdy tavern and get stabbed with a broken bottle."

Merlin raised his eyebrows at the scenario that Arthur had chosen to describe.

"I'm serious, Merlin," said Arthur, wanting to make sure Merlin did not treat his own safety with flippancy. "Do you have any idea how hard it would be for me to find a replacement Court Sorcerer?"

"Are you worried about me, Arthur?"

"Merlin, you literally almost died last night," said Arthur grumpily. "You can hardly act like someone who doesn't need to be worried about."

"Shh," said Merlin, who had suddenly stopped walking.

"Did you just shush your king?"

"We're here," said Merlin quietly, and he moved forward a bit to hide behind a tree and look cautiously around it.

Arthur followed suit and hid himself behind another nearby tree, peering around to try to see what Merlin was looking at.

"The horses are in there," said Merlin, nodding towards a cave up ahead.

"Are the thieves in there too?"

"Yes, except one, who is on watch and covering the entrance with a crossbow."

"Where?"

"I can't see him from here. He was hidden above the crest of the hill over the cave when I saw him in the crystal."

"We'll have to loop round and come at him from behind," said Arthur, now looking for a way up the hill. Unfortunately the part of the hill closest to them was a cliff with a sheer drop and it didn't level out enough for climbing until near where the cave was. He couldn't see anywhere that they could get to the high ground without getting close enough to be within sight of the cave opening. They might have to go quite far in another direction to find a different way up.

"That will take too long," said Merlin.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Just one," said Merlin, and to Arthur's horror, he broke cover and walked out into the open, strolling towards the cave.

Arthur was about to run after Merlin before the idiot got shot again, when he hear a twang. An arrow came shooting out from above the cave, aimed right at Merlin's head. But Merlin, with impossibly fast reflexes, moved at an inhuman speed and stepped out of the way, catching the arrow in his hand out of midair.

Merlin looked at the arrow he was now holding and said, "Gehwaeder berstan."

The arrow shattered into tiny pieces, which fell to the ground where Merlin stood. Simultaneously, Arthur heard a crack from the area above the cave that had been the source of the arrow. He looked up and saw the figure of a man running away.

"What did you do?" Arthur asked.

"I shattered his crossbow. I just needed to get the arrow to direct the magic using the prior connection between the crossbow and the arrow. I think it scared him away," said Merlin.

Of course it did. A man he had mortally wounded had just showed up at his hideout fully recovered and proved himself to be a powerful sorcerer. Arthur could hardly blame the man for being frightened. Although he did judge him for being a coward who would run away and abandon his companions when he was supposed to be on watch.

"And before that?"

Arthur had been much more startled by Merlin's ability to catch crossbow bolts in midair.

"I just slowed time a bit."

Slowed time? He said it so casually. Arthur had heard from Merlin before about how he could slow time down from his description of how he saved Arthur's life for the first time after running across a room in less time than it took for a dagger to fly through the air. Yet he had never actually seen it, so he had perhaps not fully believed that Merlin wasn't just exaggerating the effects of a spell that made him a bit faster. With the concept Arthur had of time, he didn't understand how it could be affected by anything, even magic. But what he had just witnessed was not just Merlin moving fast. No matter how fast he made his movements, it would not allow him to see the moment the bolt was shot. Merlin had reacted faster than the speed of thought, as if he really had been in a world where everything but him was happening slowly and he could clearly see the path of an arrow travelling through the air. Arthur hadn't exactly thought that Merlin was lying about this particular ability but he found that only in this moment did he truly believe it.

Arthur had been surprised when Merlin had told him that he was prophesied to be the most powerful warlock to ever live, despite having witnessed Merlin's power, but maybe he hadn't really understood what that meant. The power to control time was so far beyond any kind of magic Arthur had ever seen or heard of. Even Merlin had acknowledged that it was a whole different kind of power, saying that he had to be sure of the circumstances in order to use it. He gave some confusing explanation about how crossing time streams could cause all kinds of terrible anomalies, which must be avoided when manipulating time. Arthur didn't really have a clue what that meant and, because he didn't think that he was really equipped to understand it, he hadn't bothered trying. But even if there were limits, this ability of Merlin's was really unnerving. Arthur was surprised that even after all this time he could still be unsettled by Merlin's magic.

Merlin, oblivious to how he had rattled Arthur, was moving towards the cave and Arthur abandoned his musings to follow him. They stood to the edge of the cave opening and peeked in. Four men sat around a travel chest and appeared to be divvying up the contents amongst themselves. The horses were both tied to a rock to the side. The cave was fully equipped with food, firewood, weapons, tools, and anything else a group of men would need to live there. A pile of saddles, as well as a collection of travel bags and boxes, sat in a corner. Clearly this was the base camp and hideout for a well-established group of horse thieves.

"What now?" whispered Merlin.

"Let's get our horses," said Arthur simply.

He edged into the cave quietly, with Merlin following. They made it about halfway to the horses before, predictably, the thieves noticed them. They grabbed swords and rushed forwards. Arthur managed to cross blades twice with the nearest one before they were all blown back by Merlin. Honestly, was he never going to have another proper sword fight again?

Turning his attention away from the pile of unconscious men, Arthur untied the horses and started leading them outside. When he got to the cave entrance he suddenly realized that Merlin wasn't with him. Looking back, he saw Merlin kneeling beside the travel chest the thieves had been going through.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," said Merlin, jogging to catch up to Arthur and taking the reins of his own horse.

Once they were out of the cave, they mounted the horses and rode back to their own camp to collect their supplies that they had left there.

As they rode, Arthur made a mental note that once this was over, he would have to send a patrol down that way to deal with the band of horse thieves. He hated knowing that such people were free in his kingdom to harass and attack innocent travellers.

"Of all bandits, I think horse thieves are the worst," he said to Merlin as they packed their saddle-bags back onto their horses. "Stolen gold and jewels can be replaced, but a horse is not just valuable – it is a companion as well."

Arthur was quite fond of his horses. They each had their own personality that could not be replaced simply by purchasing another one. And over the years of riding a horse, a knight formed a kind of bond with the animal where it would respond to its rider's wishes beyond mere training. That was irreplaceable.

"A stolen horse is certainly valuable to a thief in that they can sell it, but that is just a fraction of the value the horse has to its rightful owner beyond mere worth in gold," Arthur continued.

Merlin didn't respond. He was not looking at Arthur, seemingly very focussed on the harness buckle he was currently fastening. Arthur couldn't tell if Merlin was even listening to him at all.

"A man has to be really low to steal another man's horse," Arthur continued, unsure why Merlin was pointedly ignoring his attempts to have a conversation. But Merlin still refused to respond or even make eye contact.

Fine, if Merlin didn't want to talk to him, then so be it. Arthur wasn't going to keep bouncing his one way conversation off of Merlin. What was up with him anyways?

Arthur watched Merlin as he brushed down the horse he had been riding, while inspecting the saddle and bags to make sure everything was set to continue their journey. Suddenly Arthur remembered something he had been wondering about.

"Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask you," he said to Merlin, forgetting Merlin's unexplained silence. "Where did you get that horse? It doesn't look like one of mine."

It was actually kind of impressive the lengths that Merlin had gone to for his disguise as Emrys by making sure no one would even recognize his horse. What Arthur couldn't understand was where he could possibly have gotten it from, since he knew for a fact that Merlin couldn't afford a horse of his own.

Merlin stiffened at Arthur's words.

Confused, Arthur watched as Merlin slowly turned around and finally faced his direction. Merlin's eyes however, were trained on the ground and he fidgeted with the sleeve of his jacket nervously.

"I um…" Merlin paused for a long moment before finishing, "I stole it."

"You STOLE it!"

Is that why Merlin hadn't wanted to participate in Arthur's tirade against horse thieves? What on earth could have possessed Merlin to commit such a crime?

"From Vortigern," Merlin hastened to explain. "But he kidnapped me and tried to kill me so I thought it was justifiable! And anyways I needed a way to get back to Camelot!"

Oh, well that explained it.

"What exactly happened with Vortigern anyways?"

With everything that had been happening, Arthur hadn't actually heard a proper explanation yet of where Merlin had disappeared to for three days.

"He somehow figured out that I was Emrys. I think he must have drugged me or something at the feast. I only remember somehow going from being at the feast to waking up in his dungeon and then being led out to a field and almost killed. He had some hair-brained idea that if he mixed the blood of Emrys with mortar, he could build a tower that would magically stand on unstable ground."

What the heck? What kind of reason was that to kill someone? And since when could a sorcerer's blood be used like some kind of magical potion? Arthur may be no expert on magic, but the whole thing seemed like a stupid idea, even to him.

"Surely you weren't 'almost killed'," Arthur said, rolling his eyes at how Merlin was obviously trying to make his story sound more dramatic. "You just knocked them out with magic and escaped, right?"

"They put magic-blocking manacles on me," said Merlin, sounding annoyed at Arthur's flippant dismissal of his story. "I couldn't do anything."

"Then how did you escape?"

"I'm not entirely useless without magic, you know."

Arthur raised his eyebrows at that statement, making sure Merlin could clearly see the disbelief in his expression.

"I tricked them into taking the manacles off," said Merlin dismissively before looking at the horse and nervously asking, "Arthur, um, can I keep him?"

Was Merlin really still concerned about Arthur's reaction to him stealing the horse? Honestly. Of course he hadn't done anything wrong.

"Why are you asking me? I'm not going to have you arrested for owning him if that's what you want to know. Maybe don't go around saying you stole him though."

"Thanks," said Merlin, looking relieved, like he had really thought Arthur would be angry about it. Well, Arthur supposed, he had been a bit forceful in his earlier comments about horse theft.

Arthur rolled his eyes and mounted his horse, Merlin also climbing onto his own now that he had finished checking the bags and saddle were secure. They rode hard throughout the afternoon to make up for the lost time. Fortunately it hadn't taken them long to retrieve the horses, so they should still arrive at the border before nightfall with little trouble.

They stopped again after several hours, to stretch their legs, eat some dried meat and bread, and give the horses a break. As they finished their hasty meal, Merlin suddenly held out a ring to Arthur and said, "Here."

Arthur stared at the ring, which Merlin was holding out to him with no explanation. What was he supposed to make of that?

"I'm a married man, Merlin," he quipped.

Merlin rolled his eyes and gave an exaggerated sigh before saying, "Just take it. I enchanted it to protect you by deflecting attacks, in case you don't see them coming."

Arthur took the ring, which had a gold band with a large square-cut diamond embedded in it. He had a lot of questions but decided to start by making the point that had immediately irritated him, "You were supposed to use magic to protect yourself from attacks – not me!"

"I've got one too," said Merlin, raising his hand so that Arthur could see a similar diamond ring on his finger.

Oh. Well. It seemed Merlin had actually done what he had asked him to do for once. Ok then, first question. "Where on earth did you get two diamond rings from?"

"I got them from the travel chest the horse thieves had."

So that's what he had been doing in the cave.

"More stealing Merlin?"

"Well they stole it first!" Merlin said defensively. "And I needed them to have diamonds, which was hardly something I had otherwise available to me!"

"Why did it have to be a diamond?"

"The spell needs to use a certain amount of magic to block every attack so I needed something that could store magic for later use. Diamonds can hold a lot of magic because of their open crystalline structure. I filled them both to their maximum capacity while we were riding. Mine will slowly replenish itself from my magic whenever it is not full or being used so it should work indefinitely so long as I don't take too many hits at once, in which case it would empty before it has time to refill. Yours will be useless once all the magic in it is used up, so I'll have to refill it for you if it is getting low but that will take a while to do. It took half a day of riding to fill it this time – so try not to walk into a barrage of arrows and use it all up if I'm not going to have time to refill it for you. And be careful! You won't be able to sense how much magic is left so don't go walking into attacks assuming it will protect you! It will only take one blow not deflected by the ring to kill you!"

"But I thought you said you didn't know how to do that?" Arthur was confused. He was pretty sure he would have noticed if Merlin had been trying to balance a magic book and read while riding – mainly because it would have certainly ended with Merlin in a pile on the ground.

"I invented the spell while we were riding. I've studied the old tongue and magical theory enough to be able to make up my own spells – not just use ones that other people have invented. This is the best I could come up with for now. These rings will only block direct attacks, like a blow from a sword or a magical blast. They will be useless against more abstract forms of attack like poison or enchantments. With more time, materials, and access to reference books I could probably modify it to block a wider range of harmful things, but for now we'll have to make do with them as they are," Merlin explained seriously before finishing with a single eyebrow raised in Arthur's direction, "so don't expect your ring to save you from love spells, Arthur."

Arthur was too pleased with Merlin at the moment to snap back at him for that comment. He had to admit the ring Merlin had given him could come in seriously handy, considering the kind of situations he always seemed to find himself in. And it was nice to know that Merlin was no longer one stab-in-the-back away from being the most easily-killed all-powerful warlock to ever live. Of course now that Merlin could not be killed even by being caught off guard, he was really starting to seem more all-powerful than ever. Arthur took a moment to appreciate how glad he was that Merlin was on his side.

Arthur put the ring on saying, "Thanks Merlin," and because it felt too strange with Merlin to leave it at that he added, "sometimes you're not as useless as you look."

Merlin scoffed at Arthur's form of gratitude and then suddenly he stiffened and started glancing around, as though he could hear something and was trying to locate the direction it was coming from.

Arthur held his breath and listened, but could hear nothing.

"What is it, Merlin," he whispered.

"Druids," said Merlin.

Druids? Arthur looked around, still listening for any sounds. He could not see or hear anything out of the ordinary?

"Where?"

"Close."

Close? What was that supposed to mean? Arthur could still detect no change from a few moments ago, before Merlin had started acting all alert. It reminded him of how a hound could smell a deer long before the hunters could see or hear it. Was it possible that Merlin could smell things like a dog? Or did he have some kind of magic sense that was invisible to normal people?

Suddenly Arthur turned to see a druid standing in the clearing. As he looked around, he now found that they were surrounded by them. How did the druids always approach so silently?

"Arthur Pendragon," said the druid who stood directly in front of him. Arthur recognized him as a man who he had seen on two separate occasions. This was one of the men who had come to meet him when he had returned the druid boy to his people, as well as the man who had given him the cup of life years later. Arthur guessed that this was probably the druid's leader. "We have come to thank you for bringing peace to those with magic in Camelot. Your time of destiny has come."

Arthur still couldn't help feeling somewhat unnerved by the druids, but he knew that they were peaceful to the point of self-endangerment. He had respected them for that ever since he had first encountered them as a young man and discovered that his father's stories of the threat they posed were far from reality. The way they acted all mysterious may give Arthur an eerie feeling, but he wanted nothing more than to repair the relationship between these people and the rest of Camelot and make amends for the way they had been treated in the past.

"You and your people are free to live in Camelot, and will be welcomed at court should you wish to come," he announced. "I swear that from this day forth, the druid people will have the respect that they deserve."

"Your words will be remembered in history for generations to come," the druid said. "The time that was prophesied has begun."

Arthur wasn't sure what to say to that. Merlin had told him about the druid prophesies about him but he had never been able to understand what the prophesy was actually supposed to be saying. It didn't help that Merlin only half sounded like he had a clue what he was talking about and hadn't been able to give a clear answer to any of Arthur's questions, like what does "Once and Future King" mean. According to Merlin, the dragon had prophesied that he would unite the land of Albion. Was there a dragon prophesy and a druid prophesy? Or were they both the same? Arthur thought that the druids could probably answer his questions better than Merlin and he wanted to ask them about it but he didn't want to sound foolish in such a formal setting.

"Emrys," the druid continued, "Arthur Pendragon," he nodded to each of them, "You have our allegiance. The druids will answer should you ever require our assistance."

"I gladly accept you're pledge," said Arthur formally.

The druid looked to Merlin. Merlin seemed to register that they had pledged allegiance to both of them a second too late for his hesitation to pass unnoticed.

"So do I," said Merlin who really did not have the knack of speaking formally when caught off guard.

The druid merely bowed his head towards Merlin, as though he had answered the oath in a more appropriate way.

"A gift for you, Arthur Pendragon," he said, turning back to Arthur and holding out a ring to him.

A ring? Why was everybody giving him rings all of a sudden?

He reached out to accept it and the druid placed it in his hand and said, "May it guide you and bring the help you need to your side."

Arthur looked down at the ring. It had a round jewel that was a beautiful bright green colour. When he looked up to thank the druid, he was surprised to see that the clearing was empty save for himself and Merlin. Druids - how did they do that?

"That was… weird," he said, not knowing how else to describe it.

"I know, right?" Merlin agreed. "Druids are always like that."

He handed the ring to Merlin and asked, "Is it magical?"

"Yes," said Merlin, studying the ring. "I can feel the power in it."

"What is it?"

"How would I know?"

Merlin sure could be dense sometimes. Of course he should know!

"You have magic! You should know about druid rings!"

"Just because I have magic doesn't mean I know everything about druids," he said, handing the ring back to Arthur. "The druids are very secretive. Even Gaius doesn't know much about them or their magic."

"Then how am I supposed to know how to use it?"

"Some druids can see the future. It will probably be clear later on what it is supposed to be for."

Arthur sighed and asked, "Would it have killed them to just explain?"

"Finally, someone understands!" Merlin said with sympathetic exasperation. "That is exactly what I have been saying for years!"

Arthur couldn't help but smile. At least Merlin was down to earth and not needlessly mysterious like a lot of other magical types seemed to be.

"Come on," he said, getting back on track to their mission. "We've still got a ways to go to get to the border."

Before mounting his horse he slipped the ring onto the finger beside where he wore the one from Merlin. Why was he suddenly acquiring so many rings? He wondered if a completely unexpected consequence of legalizing magic would be running out of fingers to wear magic rings on.

**Notes:**

**It was very tempting to have Merlin go into more detail about the low packing factor of the diamond crystal structure and how magic can be doped into the open sites. But I didn't want to have Merlin know what atoms are or make it into one of those magic-is-really-science things. But it would have been a beautiful explanation. My many years of studying and working as a chemist really are no help in writing Merlin fanfiction.**


	10. Chapter 10 – Arthur's Army

**Chapter 10 – Arthur's Army**

Merlin dismounted his horse, watching Arthur carefully. The sun was getting low in the sky and they were almost at the border, but Arthur had suddenly declared that they would be stopping here for a moment. Arthur had said earlier that he wanted to make it to the border before nightfall so Merlin wasn't sure why they were suddenly taking a break when they were almost at their goal. He could only assume that Arthur wanted to discuss what their strategy for going up against an army was going to be. Merlin wondered if Arthur actually had a plan for how to stop Helios' army or if this was going to be the kind of thing that they made up as they went. Surely Arthur must have some idea what they were going to do now. After all, he'd had all that time riding to think about what approach to take.

Merlin watched as Arthur dismounted from his horse and walked over to him. Any second now he would go into strategy mode and outline the cunning tactics that he had such a knack of coming up with. Arthur was really good at figuring out just what to do in any situation. This had to be it. Arthur was going to reveal his plan.

"How are you feeling," Arthur asked Merlin.

"What?"

"Are you ok? You're not still dizzy?"

Still dizzy? Merlin had only felt dizzy for a moment after using the crystal. He was perfectly fine now. He would feel annoyed at Arthur for treating him like a frail child except that it was rather touching that Arthur was actually worried about how he was feeling. Arthur had really changed from the man who had expected him back at work the day after he had been cured from a near-fatal poisoning.

"I'm fine," Merlin answered, waiting for Arthur to move on to something more constructive. Surely he hadn't wanted to stop just to inquire about Merlin's well-being.

Arthur hesitated and Merlin wondered what on earth he was actually trying to get at. It wasn't like Arthur to hedge around saying something. He usually either blatantly spoke his mind or else completely suppressed what he was thinking and never broached a subject.

"Can you use the crystal again?" Arthur finally asked.

Oh, so that was why Arthur was suddenly so concerned about Merlin's health. The way Arthur was looking at him, Merlin got the impression that Arthur was worried he might collapse at any minute.

"Yes, of course I can."

Arthur gave Merlin a scanning look as though assessing how truthful he was being before saying, "I just want to know where Helios and the Southrons are right now."

Merlin pulled out the crystal, but Arthur grabbed his arm before he could look at it and said, "Sit down first."

Merlin rolled his eyes but sat down on the ground before willing the crystal to show him the Southron army. He didn't dive too deeply into the image because he only needed to see the location and he didn't want to see Arthur's reaction if he fainted again. Even so, using the crystal almost felt like more strain than his body could take. He had felt ok while they were riding, if a bit sore and tired – but that was how he usually felt after a full day of riding anyways. It was only in performing such strenuous magic that he understood how exhausted he really was. He would never admit it out loud, but he realized that Arthur might have a point about how much the previous night's near-death experience and blood-loss was still affecting him.

It didn't take Merlin long to find the army in the crystal. He took a deep breath as he let go of the image and his vision went spotty for a moment but he remained sitting upright so he was pretty sure he had fooled Arthur into believing he was unaffected by the magic he had just used. He wasn't used to being tired out by magic like this. He could cast most spells all day without noticing any strain on his body. The only magic he could think of that came close to this was the aging spell, which had also been very exhausting to maintain.

"The army is still heading north," he said. "They're in the downs to the west."

"So they've crossed over the border already but have purposely avoided Camelot's outlying towns," Arthur mused. "Helios must be heading for Wenshire Hill. It is the most strategic place to position his army if he is expecting to be met by an army from Camelot, since he would have the high ground and a clear view of the plains where his enemy would have to approach from."

Merlin waited as Arthur paced back and forth. Now that he knew the enemy's position and intention he would be calculating exactly how to counter it. It would probably be something that sounded ridiculous at first but ended up working surprisingly well. Merlin held his breath waiting to find out what they would be doing next. He was really hoping Arthur wasn't going to ask him to stand on a hill and rain down destruction on their enemies or something like that. Or to call Kilgharrah. Sure a dragon would certainly strike fear into their enemies, but Kilgharrah was busy taking care of Aithusa and Merlin didn't want to call him unless he had no other choice. If Kilgharrah had to leave Aithusa on his own, there was no telling what might happen to the young dragon.

Arthur stopped pacing and crouched on the ground beside where Merlin sat and said, "I've got an idea."

Merlin nodded and waved his hand to signal Arthur to keep talking.

"Can you use magic to make your voice sound like it is coming from somewhere else?" Arthur asked.

Not sure where Arthur was going with this, Merlin answered, "Yes."

"Can you turn something like a rock or a stick into a tent?"

Arthur's questions seemed incredibly random.

"Yes."

"If you slow down time and move somewhere, will it look like you just appeared there out of nowhere?"

Merlin suppressed a smile. So Arthur finally believed that he could slow time? Arthur had tried to hide it, but Merlin had been perfectly aware that Arthur hadn't really believed him when he had told him about that particular ability. Merlin rather thought that Arthur greatly overestimated the significance of that power. To use it, he had to be careful to avoid spatial anomalies in the relative time-frame, which basically meant that he couldn't directly interact with a person in a different time stream. That is, while time was slowed, he couldn't have any contact with another person. Because he couldn't hurt or even touch another person until he sped time back up, it was useless for attacking. And apart from that, it took him a moment to use the magic before it took effect and time began to slow, which further limited the things that it was actually useful for. Sure he could dodge attacks with it, but it was really only useful for an attack he could see coming. He needed to react fast enough to something to slow time in order to avoid it, which was nearly impossible unless he expected the exact moment an attack would occur and slowed time before it actually happened. If he didn't see the attack coming, he usually didn't have enough time to slow down time before it would hit him. Usually he found that it was easier and faster to just dodge or create a shield. Slowing time to avoid an attack required foresight, concentration, and good timing, but it could still be useful if he had no other way to defend himself, or if he had an alternative reason, such as when he had slowed time to catch the arrow earlier because he had wanted to get hold of the arrow itself.

Of course, as Arthur suggested, Merlin could also use it to appear somewhere suddenly. That is, assuming he was already close enough to begin with that he could get there fairly quickly, since he couldn't keep time slowed for very long.

Still waiting for Arthur to reveal this idea of his that seemed to involve Merlin doing a very random assortment of magic, Merlin answered him again with a simple, "Yes."

Arthur grinned in a way that Merlin had come to associate with a large number of chores. Just what was this idea of his?

"Ok," said Arthur, getting down to business. "Now hear me out."

* * *

When they arrived in the plains beside Wenshire hill, Merlin learned for the first time how mind-numbingly dull and tedious it could be to perform the same spells again, and again, and again. He had never once been bored using magic before but this was just so repetitive!

He would gripe at Arthur for sitting back and doing nothing while he did all the work, except that he knew there was no possible way Arthur could actually help him. After all, Arthur couldn't enchant rocks to look like tents, swords, armour and banners, or pile firewood into enough stacks to light hundreds of campfires.

When Merlin finally finished, he had created what looked like an encampment for Camelot's entire army. When the Southrons arrived on the hill later that night, they would be able to look down and clearly see every sign of a mighty force of warriors, save for the actual soldiers themselves.

Usually Merlin found that the moments spent in waiting were the worst parts of the dangerous adventures he found himself in, but this time he felt that he deserved a break after putting in so much work setting this up. He actually enjoyed sitting quietly, waiting in the darkness, hidden in a tent at the edge of the camp he had created. Everything was in place and now they just had to wait for Helios to look down at the man-less army, wonder what on earth that was all about, and inevitably send a scout down to investigate.

It was not long before Merlin saw lights on the hill, indicating that Helios' army had arrived. Then, soon after that, Arthur's prediction of events was proved correct as Merlin spotted a young man sneaking from the direction of the hill closer and closer to the red tents emblazoned with the crest of Camelot. Each time he ducked under cover he seemed to determine that there really were no people around and continued approaching.

When Helios' scout reached the edge of the encampment, Merlin magically lifted a sword from the ground and made it hover behind his head. Then he made it swing backwards and conk him on the head bluntly with the hilt. As the scout fell to the ground, Merlin lifted five more swords with his magic and held them hovering around him at the height men would be holding them. He tried to imagine six men of varying heights holding the swords and made them hover as though they were in the imaginary soldier's hands. The key to this actually working was in making every detail so realistic that it would not be questioned. The scout turned over from where he had fallen on his face and looked fearfully up at the swords surrounding him. Merlin made the sword that had hit the man move as though it was being used to gesture with and used magic to project his voice to come from a couple of feet above that sword, saying authoritatively in a gruff voice, "Get up scum! Don't even think of trying anything. One wrong move and you will never see another day."

The man got nervously to his feet, looking around and squinting through the darkness as though he couldn't understand why he couldn't see the man talking to him.

"Now, walk," said Merlin, moving the sword forward to jab threateningly in his direction. "Come on, this way, move!"

Merlin continued imagining his six invisible soldiers and how their swords would move as he led the man at sword-point through the camp and into a tent, using magic to move the cloth as though a hand had done it. Merlin himself snuck around the back and peered through a hole in the tent.

The scout had offered no resistance as he was led into the tent and Merlin had the feeling that it was partly out of fear and partly because he simply did not know how to react to the situation. When he was forced into the tent by a prod from the sword at his back, he looked quite shocked to find himself face to face with Camelot's king.

Arthur was sitting on a chair and reading a scroll, talking about battle strategies as though an army commander was listening to his instructions. When the scout was ushered in he showed no sign of surprise but simply rolled the scroll back up and handed it over to his right side. Merlin took hold of the scroll with magic and moved it from the place in the air where Arthur left it to slightly further away, as though an invisible hand had taken it from him.

Arthur stood up and approached the scout, saying, "I see Helios thinks that he can get away with sending his men to spy on my army."

The scout stopped giving sideways glances to the hovering swords, took a deep breath and launched into a formal speech that he clearly had prepared in case of capture, "King Arthur, my Lord Helios sent me to determine what kind of encampment was set up in these plains. I assure you, neither he nor I knew that your army was here. Please, I appeal to your honour – not to have me killed just for what I have seen."

"I'm not going to have you killed," Arthur assured the man, "because I want you to deliver a message to Helios for me. Tell him that there need not be any bloodshed. If he withdraws his army then I will also withdraw mine. However if he does not withdraw, he will be wiped out. Tell him that he does not stand a chance. I am aided by Emrys – the most powerful sorcerer who has ever lived. He has already used his magic to turn my entire army invisible and that is only the beginning of what he can do. Tell Helios to withdraw or else find out what Emrys and my enchanted army can really do."

The man had looked relieved when Arthur said he would not be killed, but at the mention of Emrys and the invisible army he had returned to glancing around in fear. He looked at the hovering swords and scroll with fresh understanding. Hah, thought Merlin, so he was really buying this?

"Take him away," Arthur said to the air above the sword that Merlin had hovering at the man's back.

Merlin took hold of the back of the man's jacket with magic, trying to envision an invisible fist. He gave a small magical shove to the man's back and led him out of the tent.

Merlin magically cast his voice again, making it sound like his imaginary soldier was leaning forward to talk into the scout's ear, and said, "You should count yourself lucky that King Arthur has too much honour to harm a messenger. If it was up to me you would be flogged before being sent back to let Helios know we are not playing around. Heh heh heh."

Merlin felt the man tremble in his magical hold over him. He pushed him forward so that he fell onto the ground and held the sword out again. When the man got back to his feet, Merlin led him at sword point back to the edge of the encampment and let him go. The man ran towards the hill, glancing over his shoulder as if hardly daring to believe he had actually made it out alive.

Merlin pulled the Emrys cloak on and followed him under the cover of darkness. This was, by far, the riskier step in Arthur's plan, but he had insisted it would be necessary to drive home the illusion they were trying to portray. At this point, Merlin didn't know what to think about Arthur's inconsistent concern, or lack therefor, about his safety. Arthur was so worried about him getting a little dizzy looking at crystals but had no problem sending him alone into enemy territory. Since finding out about his magic, Arthur had gone from always underestimating Merlin, to flip-flopping between still underestimating him and vastly overestimating him. It made for a very bizarre contrast.

In any case, Merlin didn't like leaving Arthur behind alone – even though he was the one who was running into danger. Somehow even in situations that should be safe, Arthur had a bad habit of getting into trouble if Merlin was not constantly by his side.

When he got to the top of the hill, Merlin watched and made note of which tent the scout went into. Then he carefully crept through the camp himself. He cast sleeping spells on a few men that were in positions where they might be able to see him and made it through undetected.

He put the guards outside the tent to sleep and listened from outside to what was being said within. He heard the voice of the scout say, "I saw it with my own eyes, my Lord!"

"You must have been mistaken," said another voice that must belong to Helios.

"My Lord, I know what I saw! Arthur has an invisible army!"

"And the sorcerer Emrys – did you see him?"

"No, my Lord, but how else could the army have been turned invisible?"

Now it was time for the final touch – letting Helios see with his own eyes. Merlin slowed down time and, while the world around him was at a standstill, he entered the tent and stood in front of Helios before allowing time to resume its normal course.

The sudden appearance of a cloaked man in their midst certainly got the attention of the occupants of the tent. Helios and his guards all grabbed their swords, but Merlin waved his hand and cast an immobilizing spell, causing them all to freeze in position, unable to move.

Merlin held out his hands in a grandiose gesture and summoned green flames to burn threateningly in both his open palms. He threw his head back and laughed dramatically, the voice-changing charm on the cloak making it sound eerie even to his own ears.

"Yes, indeed!" Merlin proclaimed. "Who else but I – Emrys could create an army that cannot be seen? If you are so foolish as to doubt my powers then go ahead and attack Camelot! Then you shall see that turning an army of men invisible is but mere child's play to me! I have more powerful magic than you have ever imagined in your darkest nightmares! Attack and you will see the hellstorm of fire and torment that I can rain down on all those who threaten my king!"

After his speech, Merlin threw the green fire he was holding towards the ground at his feet. Then he slowed time again. While nothing else was moving he left the tent and cast a spell that would create a cloud of black smoke right where he had been standing. When time sped up again it would appear that he had disappeared in a very impressive way, but Merlin did not stick around to watch. He only had a few moments before his hold on time would fade and it would return to its normal pace. He checked the nearby tents until he found one that was empty, save for some spare armour, and entered, allowing time to resume.

Merlin quickly changed out of his cloak and dressed himself in Southron armor. He joined the men outside who were now all running around and shouting, looking for the sorcerer who had infiltrated the camp and then vanished. He made his way to the edge of the encampment, unnoticed thanks to the disguise, and discretely slipped away, celebrating a perfectly executed ruse as he made his way back to Arthur.

Fortunately Arthur had managed not to injure himself while sitting around doing nothing – for once. They both waited in anticipation to see what the result of their fabrication would be. It wasn't long before a messenger came down the hill, waving a white flag, and announced that Helios would withdraw his army and expected King Arthur to uphold his word and do the same.

Arthur sent word back that he would comply with the agreement and allow Helios to withdraw in peace. Merlin and Arthur watched gleefully as the lights vanished from the hilltop and the mighty force that had threatened Camelot returned home.

Merlin had to give it to Arthur – he really was a master of strategy. But he couldn't help it if he had expressed a certain amount of skepticism when Arthur had first outlined his plan.

"I told you it would work," Arthur said to Merlin with a grin.

* * *

The trip back to Camelot was mainly uneventful. Merlin had used the crystal again to check how things were going to the north and he saw Lot retreating and leading his army back the way they came, confirming that all had gone according to plan there as well. But then he fainted again and Arthur had forbidden him from using the crystal any more until he was properly rested.

Merlin had to admit that a good night's sleep in a proper bed did sound really good right about now. At long last the castle came into view and Merlin started imagining the proper food and soft pillow that were just waiting for him inside.

As they made their way up the path to the city, Merlin was not surprised to see the gates shut. After all, the city would be on high alert with the main portion of the army away. However, he was expecting the gates to open as they approached, since the guards on lookout should have no trouble recognizing their king and his servant. But they made it all the way up to the gates without them moving an inch. Arthur was beginning to look very annoyed. Probably the guards had fallen asleep, Merlin mused. It wouldn't be the first time.

Arthur put his hands on his hips and shouted, "Open the gates!"

Nothing happened.

Now looking practically murderous, Arthur pounded on the gate. "This is your king. I command you to open the gates!"

Patience had never been a virtue of his.

Finally, the gates moved. However, instead of opening grandly to welcome the king, they only opened wide enough for a guard to stand in the opening, blocking their entrance.

"Sire! Don't…" the guard started to say, before suddenly doubling over, clutching his head and crying out in pain.

Arthur rushed forwards, holding the man steady and asking urgently, "What's wrong?"

Merlin could see nothing to explain what had caused him pain. He looked around and could see no threat on either side of the gates.

"It's a…" the man tried to speak again, before screaming and falling to his knees.

Bending down to check the man's pulse and vital signs, still trying to determine what was wrong with him, Merlin suddenly felt very dizzy. There was something odd. Something. Some kind of smell. He should know what that smell was. Gaius would tell him off if he didn't identify the smell. What was that smell? Gaius would… what would Gaius do again? Clarywart. That was it. The smell.

Everything went black.

**Notes:**

**I have a headcannon that because Merlin had to call Kilgharrah in "The Sword in the Stone", Kilgharrah had to leave Aithusa alone and that is why Aithusa ended up with Morgana at the end of the episode. Because really – Kilgharrah should have been looking after him! In my story, Merlin does not call Kilgharrah in the season 4 timeline and therefore Aithusa gets raised properly and does not end up with Morgana. There – fixed. It can also be noted that because Morgana used up the 'price of a soul' coin in my previous story, the storyline where she resurrects Lancelot cannot take place in my version of events and Gwen never betrays Arthur. There – double fixed.**

**In this chapter I gave my own explanation about the limitations of time-slowing magic, since Merlin does it very rarely in the show, which begs the question of why he doesn't do it more often. There has to be some reason why he can't just slow down time in every episode and go around fixing everything.**


	11. Chapter 11 – Why Does This Always Happen

**Chapter 11 – Why Does This Always Happen?**

When Arthur woke up he felt very stiff and uncomfortable. The surface he was sleeping on was very cold and hard. Automatically, he tried to feel around for a pillow and suddenly felt a strange tickling sensation cross his outstretched hand. He opened his eyes to see what it was and saw a rat scuttling across the floors, having just run over his hand. He leapt up more quickly than he ever had in his life. Now that he was awake, he realized that he was in a cell in Camelot's dungeon. Looking around, he saw Merlin was also in the same cell, sprawled unconscious on the floor.

Arthur tried to remember how they had gotten here. The last thing he remembered was the guard at the gate acting very strangely and then suddenly he had felt very dizzy and he couldn't remember anything else. They must have been drugged somehow.

"Merlin, wake up!" he said, nudging him with his foot.

Merlin groaned and sat up.

"What happened?"

"I don't know," said Arthur. Something very bad must have happened in Camelot while they had been away. If Guinevere was still in charge there was no way he would be locked up right now. Guinevere! If Camelot had been taken over, what had happened to Guinevere? Arthur's heart sank as he thought of possibilities he didn't want to think about. If something happened to her, Arthur didn't know what he would do. He rushed to the cell door, ready to search the palace until he had found her and ensured her safety.

"Come on," he said, waiting for Merlin to open the cell door. "Let's get out of here."

But Merlin didn't move. He seemed to be staring at his own wrist, looking utterly horrified.

"Merlin?" Arthur asked uncertainly.

Then Arthur noticed what Merlin was looking at. There was a golden bracelet around Merlin's wrist. Arthur had never seen Merlin wear such a thing before and, based on the way he was looking at it, Arthur could only assume that it was something their captors had put on him and that it wasn't good.

"What is that?"

Merlin suddenly looked at Arthur, his eyes scanning Arthur's wrists. Understanding what he was looking for, Arthur raised his hands in front of him and saw the same golden bracelet on his own right wrist. It shone brightly as though it had been recently polished, and was covered in intricate carvings that Arthur recognized as symbols of the old religion. He tried to take it off and found that he couldn't.

"What are these things," he asked again.

"They are the bracelets worn by the guild of magic users," Merlin answered, sounding very unhappy about it.

"The guild of… are you telling me that there is secretly a guild of magic users in Camelot?"

"What? No, not in Camelot. The guild of magic users is in Essetir. By law, Cenred required all magic users in his lands to join the guild on pain of death. That way he could keep account of all the sorcerers in his kingdom."

"Then why didn't you join?"

"These aren't just bracelets. They inflict pain on the wearer at the whim of whoever holds the key that matches the bracelet, and can only be removed by the same key. Sure, joining the guild of magic users gives protection and training to sorcerers, but it meant being at the mercy of Cenred, who held all the keys. At least it used to, I assume Lot must have gotten hold of the keys after Cenred died."

"How do you know all this?"

"Cenred used to occasionally send sorcerers into Ealdor. Sometimes it was part of his way of scaring people into paying his extravagant taxes and sometimes they would come looking for new recruits for the guild, reminding everyone that the penalty for being caught using magic without membership was death. I think they were supposed to make joining the guild sound appealing and not talk about the bracelets, and usually they just made a fancy sounding speech about the benefits of membership. But occasionally they would come alone, without an escort of knights to watch them, and then they were more honest in their announcements to the town – probably not wanting anyone else to suffer the same fate they had."

That was quite illuminating. Arthur had never really understood why Merlin had decided to come to Camelot, where just having magic had been punishable by death, choosing to leave a land where it was legal. But it sounded like it would have been just as dangerous for Merlin to stay than leave, if not more so.

But enough of pondering things from the past. The question now was who had put these bracelets on them. The most logical explanation would be that it was Lot, but they had already confirmed that Lot was in his own kingdom, leading his army back up north. So he couldn't be behind this, could he? Perhaps it was Morgana? They hadn't heard anything from her since Merlin had seen her in the crystal. Maybe instead of helping with her plan to attack Camelot with Lot and Helios, she had come directly here while Arthur and his knights were away.

"We need to find out what is going on," said Arthur.

"We could use this," said Merlin, pulling the crystal of Neahtid out of his pocket.

"They didn't take that from you?"

"Whoever captured us would have just seen me as a servant. They probably didn't think of searching me."

Arthur considered it for a moment, before saying, "That thing tires you out too much and I'm going to need you at full strength. Let's get out of here and see if we can figure out what is going on without the crystal."

Obediently, Merlin put the crystal back in his pocket and waved his hand at the door, which clicked itself unlocked and swung gently open.

They creeped out of the cell block and peeked around the corner at where the guards would be. Arthur was surprised to see two of Camelot's guards on duty. Perhaps Camelot had not been taken over after all. Perhaps this whole thing was a misunderstanding. Arthur started to move forwards to confront his men and demand to know why he had been imprisoned, but Merlin grabbed him arm, holding him back.

"They might be enchanted," he whispered.

Ah, yes. That was also a possibility.

Merlin whispered a few words and the guards slumped over in their chairs, fast asleep. Arthur removed one of their swords and tucked it into his belt, figuring he would borrow it for now, since their captors had taken his. He moved to go up the stairs, but Merlin pulled him in another direction down a side hallway.

"I want to try something," he said.

Confused but intrigued, Arthur followed Merlin to a door at the end of the hallway. Although he had been to almost every corner of his castle, he had never known what was through this particular door. His father had strictly forbidden him from going anywhere near it. As a boy he had often gotten in trouble for sneaking into the dungeons, the servant's hallways, and other places he was not supposed to go, but he had never seen his father as furious about anything as the time he was caught trying to get through this door. It was enough to terrify him into never trying it again. Arthur's curiosity about it may have burned as a child but as he got older he had so much other stuff to worry about that he hadn't thought about the mysterious door in years.

Merlin unlocked the door with magic and Arthur followed him through, his childhood curiosity now returning to him full force. Behind the door was not a constructed room or hallway, but a passageway carved out of the very bedrock Camelot stood on, which lead downward into the earth.

"Where are we going?"

Merlin took a torch from a wall bracket by the door and lit it with magic before leading the way down the passage.

"These bracelets are enchanted by magic of the old religion and designed so that no magic can remove or break them," Merlin explained, annoyingly not answering Arthur's question. "But I think I might still be able to remove them if I can get the right tool. The swords of the Knights of Medhir were created by magic of the old religion. Years ago I was able to use one to break a set of chains that were forged by the old religion and enchanted to be unbreakable even by magic. I think I might be able to do the same with these bracelets."

Arthur couldn't remember what had happened to the swords of the Knights of Medhir after they were defeated.

"And one of their swords is down there?" Arthur asked.

"Yes," said Merlin, as he rounded a corner and disappeared for a moment.

Arthur followed and, to his surprise, found himself in a vast cavern. By the light of Merlin's torch he could not even see how far it went on for. Arthur gaped. He had no idea this was under Camelot.

"What is this place?"

"This is where your father kept Kilgharrah imprisoned."

Ah, so that would explain why his father had so adamantly forbidden him from coming down here.

Arthur stared around in awe of the stone prison, trying to imagine the great dragon chained in here for twenty years. Had his father sent food down for the dragon? He had never really thought about it before.

As Arthur was pondering, Merlin had crossed to another rocky ledge and returned with an ancient looking sword.

Oh yeah, why was that here of all places?

"I used this sword to release the dragon," Merlin explained before Arthur even asked the question on his mind.

"And then you just left it here?"

"What else was I going to do with it? Hang it on my wall?"

Merlin's flippant comments sounded very out of place, echoing in the dark vastness of this place that seemed to command a sense of solemnity.

"Hold your hand against a rock," said Merlin, raising the sword.

Arthur did not like the idea of Merlin swinging a sword anywhere in his direction, but steeled his nerves and knelt down, holding his hand out on a rock jutting out the wall of the cavern, exposing the bracelet on his wrist.

"If you cut my hand off Merlin, I promise I will make the rest of your life miserable."

Merlin looked like he was concentrating very hard for a moment, before chanting, "Ic bebeod thisne swurd thaet he forcearf tha bnede. Unclce!"

On the last word, he swung the sword downwards and Arthur flinched, closing his eyes. He felt a slight burning sensation around his wrist before opening his eyes to see the bracelet cleave in two and fall to the ground.

"It worked," Arthur said, failing to keep the surprise out of his tone.

Merlin grinned and handed him the sword, bending down to hold his own hand over the rock and saying, "Swing on the last word. And you'd better not chop _my_ hand off."

Arthur had much more faith in his own aim with a sword than Merlin's, and of course had no trouble hitting the bracelet. With his eyes open this time, he saw a bright flash at the moment of contact, as sparks flew in all directions.

Now freed of the bracelets, they jogged back up the passageway to the castle, Merlin tucking the sword into his belt.

As they snuck through the castle, they occasionally had to dart around corners or change their route to avoid running into any of the occupants. There were far fewer people moving around than usual but guards stood at their posts and servants carried meals and laundry through the corridors. People seemed to be going about their day normally.

This must be Morgana again, Arthur decided. Her last plot had involved enchanting the entire castle into believing that she was queen. This must be something along the same lines. Why did this kind of thing always seem to happen?

They headed for the balcony overlooking the throne room. In Arthur's experience, those who had recently conquered any kingdom always spent an inordinate amount of time in the kingdom's throne room. That had certainly always been true of Morgana in Camelot. He figured it was a way they relished in their newfound power.

Arthur's hunch was confirmed when he and Merlin crawled to the edge of the balcony to get a view of the room below without being obviously visible themselves and they saw that the throne was indeed occupied by an usurper. However, to Arthur's surprise, it was not Morgana. It was a man dressed entirely in dull grey clothes, with straight silver hair that fell almost to his waist. He lounged on the throne, almost casually, and even had the audacity to wear one of Arthur's crowns.

"I've seen him before," Merlin whispered. "He was a sorcerer Lot was controlling. He's the one who killed Claudas and his men."

So maybe Lot really was behind this, if he was controlling this man. But Arthur looked at his wrists and couldn't see one of those golden bracelets.

Suddenly they heard a door slam from below and Morgana stormed into the visible part of the room.

So Arthur hadn't been completely wrong.

"Give me the keys," she demanded. She looked like she had lost all patience with the man before her.

He, however, did not look the least bit flustered. "Using the keys was my idea," he said simply.

Morgana put her hands on her hips, painfully reminding Arthur of when she was a child and she didn't get her way about something. "You can go now, Belfrost. I'm done with you. I stole the key to remove your bracelet from Lot in exchange for your help conquering Camelot. Now that you have done your task you are free to leave."

The man sitting on the throne chuckled to himself, taking the crown off his head and rotating it casually in his hands. He looked up patronizingly at the ill-tempered woman before him and said, "Morgana you are a fool if you think I was merely a tool for your ambitions. On the contrary, I used you as a pawn in my own plans. Did you really think that we met by accident, or that it was a coincidence that I mentioned having access to all of the spare bracelets that weren't in use? And you thought it was your idea to sell the double-attack idea to Lot and Helios and use them to either destroy or at least distract Camelot's armies, leaving the city defenseless. You never noticed all the hints I gave and how I directed the conversation to make you come up with that idea. I used you for much more than just to remove my bracelet. So no, I will not give you the keys. I am the one who holds the power here. You can either remain and work with me or leave if you are dissatisfied with your position."

Morgana had balled her hands into fists while the man named Belfrost had spoken, the way she always had as a child before having a temper tantrum.

"Then I will take them from you by force!" she screamed, and raised her hand towards Belfrost shouting, "Astrice!"

Belfrost did not react and her spell hit him full in the chest, however it had no visible effect on him. But the moment it hit, there was a strange cracking noise that Arthur could only identify when Belfrost reached into his pocket and pulled out a key that had been snapped in half.

"Now look what you've done," he said disdainfully, tossing the broken key away to the side.

Morgana just stared in shock. Arthur felt quite sure that was not what her spell was supposed to do.

Belfrost smiled at her. "You are still naïve, Morgana. I have been practicing magic for over thirty years. You may be talented but there are many things you still do not know. Once you have mastered creating your own spells, you can use magic for very specific purposes. These keys hold powerful magic of their own and I have cast a spell on them that means that any magic directed at me by Morgana Pendragon will redirect itself and instead be absorbed by the key. That means every time you try to harm me, the destructive force will instead destroy one of the keys. You are free to continue to attack me, but it would mean losing your control over the kingdom. Of course, I only made this spell effective against you, so no one else can use it to destroy the keys. It is just a little insurance for me – to ensure your cooperation."

"You forget that you also need those keys if you want to rule the kingdom!" said Morgana, who sounded like she was trying to speak as calmly as Belfrost was, but was only just able to hold herself back from all-out shouting. "What if I decide to smash through them all because if I can't have the kingdom, neither can you?"

"Morgana, really. I am keeping you here because I feel like you could be useful to me, but don't think I couldn't kill you in a moment if I felt that was in my best interest."

"You really think you could so easily kill me?" asked Morgana, who had finally gained control of her anger and now sounded cold and dangerous.

Belfrost put the crown he was holding down on the arm of the throne and gave Morgana a very direct look. "Do you really think you could defeat me in an all-out duel when your magic does nothing to me but smashes keys?"

Arthur could see in Morgana's face the exact moment when she realized that he was right. She completely lost control of her temper this time, yelling, "How can this be! My magic is stronger than yours!"

"That is true; you have more raw magic than anyone I have ever met, but you do not use it to its full potential. I compensate for the limitations in my magical power by planning ahead and using it strategically."

Morgana actually stomped her foot in anger, something Arthur had not seen her do in many years.

"You are a fool! You think you can hold Camelot when you know nothing of it? I grew up here! I am the heir to the throne! I am the rightful ruler! You don't even know what you are up against! Arthur is aided by Emrys!"

Morgana had delivered that last sentence as though she expected Belfrost to be frightened, but he did not look the least bit perturbed by the information.

"I know about Emrys," he said. "Emrys is nothing to fear."

Morgana looked like she was going to argue with that statement but they were interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

Arthur saw one of his knights, Sir Ian, cautiously approach the sorcerers and hesitantly announce, "Arthur has escaped."

"What?!" shouted Morgana and Belfrost in unison.

Belfrost leaped from the throne, finally matching Morgana in anger.

"It must be Emrys!" Morgana declared. "He must be here! He must have helped Arthur escape!"

Belfrost, meanwhile, had pulled a key out of his pocket and was staring at it in frustration.

"It's not working!" he shouted. "He must have removed the bracelet somehow!"

"You told me that wasn't possible!"

"Come on!" Belfrost said in frustration, tossing the key aside. "We have to find him."

He stormed out of the room, with Morgana at his heels. Their common purpose seemed to have driven their antagonism towards each other from their minds.

Arthur looked down at Sir Ian, who had remained in the room, ignored by the two angry sorcerers. Sir Ian gave a deep sigh and buried his face in his hands.

Arthur stood up and ran down the stairs, with Merlin following close behind him.

Sir Ian had always been loyal to him. Why was he working for those two tyrants? What could he possibly hope to gain? From Morgana and Belfrost's conversation, it didn't sound like they had enchanted the people of Camelot, so what excuse could he possibly have?

Arthur burst into the throne room, ready to demand answers from his knight.

Sir Ian turned around at the sound of the door opening and his jaw dropped at the sight of Arthur. He rushed towards Arthur, desperately saying, "Sire! You need to gets out of here! It's not safe!"

"Why are you helping them?!" Arthur demanded.

"Sire," he said, tears welling in his eyes, "my daughter has a bracelet! And the queen!"

"What are you talking about?"

Sir Ian looked surprised, "You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?" asked Arthur, his heart filling with dread at the knight's tone.

Sir Ian said nothing, but led Arthur to the window. He looked out and his breath caught in his throat at what he saw. A large cage had been constructed in the courtyard. Inside the cage were about a dozen children and Guinevere.

"They are all wearing bracelets that hurt them whenever anybody tries to act against the usurpers," Sir Ian explained in a pained voice. "The two guards at the city gate had bracelets too, but they took them off and put them on you when you returned."

"How did this happen?" asked Arthur.

"They used their magic to sneak into the city. By the time we realized what was happening, the bracelets were already on and we had no choice but to do as they commanded. They ordered everybody to go about their lives as though nothing was different and acknowledge them as the rightful rulers. We didn't want to, but there was nothing we could do! If we don't do our jobs they sometimes find out about it even if they weren't around to see it for themselves. I think they have spies - opportunists among the people who report to them." Sir Ian explained the situation to Arthur in a rushed voice before urgently saying, "Please my lord, you must leave Camelot! They would kill you the moment they found you!"

Arthur considered all that Sir Ian had said for a moment before making up his mind about his next course of action.

"What are you meant to be doing right now?" he asked the knight.

"I'm on duty commanding the castle guards. When I found the guards in the dungeon unconscious and the cell empty I didn't know what to do! I wouldn't have reported it, but I didn't want them to find out on their own and realize I had kept it from them!"

"It's ok," Arthur said meeting the desperate and remorseful eyes of his knight and trying to make him understand that he had done nothing wrong. "Any father would do the same to protect his daughter. You should return to your duty and act as though you haven't seen us – for your daughter's sake."

Sir Ian bowed his head in understanding of the order, looking grateful. Arthur knew Sir Ian's loyalty to him and that the knight would have obeyed had Arthur directly ordered him to fight against Morgana and Belfrost, but he clearly didn't want to. And Arthur would never order one of his knights to take actions that could endanger one of their own children.

"What will you do, Sire?" Sir Ian asked quietly.

Arthur looked out the window, the sight outside filling him with more determination by the second.

"I'm going to rescue them."

**Notes:**

**I was calling Sir Ian "Sir Exposition" in my mind because his entire purpose was to show up, explain the situation, and then go away.**


	12. Chapter 12 – To Capture Magic

**Chapter 12 – To Capture Magic**

Arthur and Merlin crept along the ground, hidden by the edge of the stairs that led to the main castle entrance. They had left the castle by a side exit and were scouting out the cage that had been erected in the courtyard.

It felt like a stab to Arthur's heart to see Guinevere trapped in a cage. How many days had she been in there? How many times had the bracelet hurt her? Guinevere was not supposed to have to go through such suffering. She was supposed to be safe and happy and it was supposed to be Arthur's job to make sure of that. He didn't know what choices he could have made differently to prevent this, but Arthur felt like he had failed her as a husband. He could only hope to make up for it by rescuing her now.

She was displaying her characteristic bravery and composure as she knelt on the ground, comforting a young girl who sat on her lap crying. The children all looked scared. Some of them clung to Guinevere as though she was their only lifeline. Some stared out through the bars as though waiting for something they didn't really believe they would see. Some sat in groups and whispered to each other as though they were afraid to speak in normal voices even though there were no enemies within earshot.

Arthur hated to think how this experience would affect children so young. They would surely never be able to go back to enjoying the innocence of childhood after all that they had been through. How could anyone be so low as to torture a child for leverage? Children were meant to be protected from the cruel things in the world. Usually even the most hardened of warlords acknowledged this. Arthur would feel much better once those children were back in their parent's arms.

Belfrost and Morgana were nowhere to be seen, which meant that the only people Arthur would have to get past would be his own men. Four guards stood around the cage, one at each corner. Arthur wondered if they would really stop him from rescuing the prisoners. After all, they were only cooperating in performing the guard duty in order to protect the prisoners. However, it would take a bit of explaining to make them understand the situation. They would be sure to stop any ordinary rescue attempt because, so long as the bracelets were in place, the prisoners would only be punished for leaving the cage. Would Arthur be able to explain that they had a way of removing the bracelets before the guards raised an alarm?

Merlin muttered something beside him and the guards all fell over unconscious. Ah, yes, well, that was an easier solution.

Arthur and Merlin ran to the cage. Guinevere and the children all jumped up when the guards collapsed and, when they saw Arthur, the children cheered and some of them cried out.

"The king!"

"It's the king!"

"Arthur," Guinevere breathed, clutching the bars of the cage.

"We've come to save you," Arthur said when they reached the cage, putting his hands comfortingly over where her hands held the bars.

But the moment his hand made contact with the cage, a loud sound started wailing through the air. At first he thought that the warning bell was being rung, but then he realized that the sound was not coming from the castle – it was coming from the cage. It must have been enchanted to warn of a possible escape.

"Stilnes!" Merlin said quickly, and the clanging sound abruptly stopped.

Merlin and Arthur exchanged a look. They both knew it was too late, Morgana and Belfrost would know exactly where they were now. What should they do now, in the little time they had? They could try to go ahead with the rescue but there was no way the prisoners would be able to run and escape once their bracelets were activated. Merlin could start removing the bracelets here but there was no way they would have time to do it for everybody. They could leave quickly, without the prisoners, and hope there would be another chance to rescue them, but how could they abandon them like that? Why wasn't there an option that Arthur could feel good about?

Arthur was saved from having to decide on his next action when he heard a voice behind him say, "Well, well, if it isn't my dear brother."

Arthur turned slowly to look at Morgana and Belfrost, who were descending the stairs from the castle, looking like predators swooping down on their prey.

"If you don't want your wife to feel pain beyond imagining, step away from the cage," said Belfrost coolly.

Arthur walked forward to stand before them holding his open hands out in a gesture of nonresistance, aware of Merlin at his side following suit.

"Good, very good," Belfrost said as though speaking to an obedient dog, "Now tell me, where is your friend Emrys?"

"I don't know," said Arthur, forcing himself not to glance at Merlin.

"Do you think me a fool?" Belfrost's voice now sounded as though he was talking to a child. "Your cell door was opened by magic and my alarm spell was silenced by magic. Emrys was here and you know where he is now."

Arthur's throat felt very dry. Merlin was outnumbered two to one but he could likely still win if it came to a fight with magic. But that was only if he could actually fight. With a cage full of hostages, how could Merlin do anything? If he was revealed now, Belfrost and Morgana would have the perfect opportunity to destroy the biggest threat to their rule. Arthur couldn't let them find out about Merlin.

"He went inside the castle," Arthur invented on the spot. "He's in the council chambers."

"You are a terrible liar," said Belfrost with such a patronizing tone that Arthur actually felt offended.

"It seems," Belfrost continued, pulling a key out of his pocket and holding it up pointedly, "that you care more for your sorcerer friend that for your own wife. What a shame."

"Wait!" Arthur shouted. He didn't know what he was going to say next, but he had to stop Belfrost from hurting Guinevere.

"Ah, so you are going to be sensible after all?" Belfrost said, tucking the key idly back into his pocket.

Arthur didn't know what to do. How could he choose between endangering Merlin and causing Guinevere pain? He had to think of something! Some way to trick them. There had to be another option!

"Akwele!" Merlin suddenly shouted, raising his hand and sending a stream of light straight at Belfrost.

Arthur was completely taken aback by the sudden attack but regained his wits in time to have a fraction of a second of hope that the attack would land and they could win the battle before it even properly started. But the hope that had just begun to take form inside Arthur was shattered when the spell bounced off of Belfrost after a slight magical shimmer in the air in front of him. Belfrost had not shown a reaction to the attack in time to block the spell, so he must have something similar to one of the rings that Merlin had enchanted to deflect attacks. He certainly seemed the type that would. He had gone to extraordinary lengths to create a spell to protect himself if Morgana attacked him. It only made sense that he would have something else in place for in case an attack came from someone else.

Arthur was grateful to Merlin for saving him from having to decide how to answer Belfrost, but his heart now sank with fear for him, now that he had been revealed in this situation. It had been a good idea of Merlin's to attack Belfrost while his attention was focussed on Arthur. They knew Belfrost had the keys, so if he could be defeated before he had a chance to use them, they could have defeated Morgana with ease and freed the hostages. It had been a good shot. If only it had worked.

"Ah, so this is Emrys," said Belfrost, as though Merlin had pleasantly introduced himself, apparently unperturbed by the fact that Merlin had just tried to kill him.

"YOU!" shouted Morgana, who was now staring at Merlin as though he had just sprouted wings, seemingly unaware that her jaw was hanging open.

Belfrost glanced at Morgana, but when she didn't seem capable of continuing her outburst for longer than one word, he turned back to Merlin and began speaking smoothly, "Emrys, it is a pleasure to meet you. I have heard of your great powers and would like nothing more than for us to work together. I have decades of magical knowledge and experience – including much knowledge that was all but lost after the great purge. Just think how much we could learn from each other, side by side."

"I'm not interested," Merlin interjected coldly, when Belfrost paused for effect.

"The burden you carry is a heavy one, Emrys," Belfrost continued, as though Merlin hadn't spoken. "It will not be an easy task to fulfill your destiny to bring about a world of peace and prosperity for all. You will need all the help you can get along the way. You are still so young and there is so much I can teach you. Please, I only want to be a small part of the bright future that is to come."

Belfrost smiled so pleasantly at Merlin that Arthur almost believed his words in spite of everything. Almost.

"I think I'll be better off without you, actually," said Merlin with as much hostility in his voice as there was friendliness in Belfrost's.

"You had magic all this time!" Morgana shouted, interrupting their conversation. She finally seemed to have processed the knowledge of Merlin's true identity and regained the ability to speak. "And you pretended to be ignorant and let me suffer alone when I first found out about my powers?!"

"I'm sorry, Morgana," said Merlin, and he really did sound sorry in spite of who he was apologizing to. "I tried to help you in every other way that I could back then, but I was too afraid to tell you about myself."

"You were supposed to be my friend and you didn't trust me?!"

"I saw you, Morgana," Merlin said, sounding like he was desperate for her to understand, "when you were plotting with Tauren to kill Uther, even though you didn't go through with it at that time. When I found out later that you had magic I wanted to confide in you but I couldn't forget how close you had come to betraying the man who raised you."

"The man who slaughtered my kind!"

"You can't pretend it was about that back then!" Merlin said, his voice rising back to near-shouting. "You didn't know you had magic at that time! You were just angry at him! That's why you changed your mind when he told you how much he cared about you!"

After Merlin's argument, Arthur could almost feel Morgana's anger rolling off of her in waves. She did not speak for a moment as she seemed to be too angry to open her mouth. When she finally did, she abandoned trying to argue with Merlin about his actions in the past and simply shouted, "You are a traitor to your own kind! Siding with this murderer and fighting against people who have magic like you!"

Arthur was not going to stand by and let her make such accusations against Merlin. With all that Merlin had done to convince the whole of Camelot that magic itself was nothing to fear, how dare she call him a traitor?! Arthur took a step forward to join the conversation between angry sorcerers, as foolish as such a thing may seem.

"By protecting me and staying loyal to me, Merlin proved to me that magic can be a force for good and his actions directly lead to magic becoming legal in Camelot! That is much more than you ever accomplished for your kind by using magic to terrorize people and make them hate it even more than they already did!"

"You have no right to speak about what is good for people with magic, Arthur Pendragon!" Morgana shot at him. "The magical blood on your hands will never wash off!"

"Arthur legalized magic!" Merlin shouted as though Morgana was quite simply mad. "He freed us!"

"No doubt for some foul purpose of his own!" she shouted back.

Arthur felt a sense of deja vu in hearing those words. It sounded exactly like the kind of thing his father always said whenever someone had dared imply that a sorcerer had done something good with magic. Sometimes Morgana was so much like their father it was eerie.

"You are deluding yourself, Morgana!" Merlin shouted.

Morgana seemed to have reached her limit in standing around arguing and her eyes turned golden and a mass of fire appeared in her hand, which she threw at Merlin.

Merlin, his own eyes glowing, caught the fire in his hands and crushed it into nothing.

Merlin raised his own hand to counter-attack, but Belfrost called out, "If you attack, the queen and all these poor children will suffer."

Merlin lowered his hand. Morgana's anger turned to glee and she laughed at Merlin's powerlessness. This was exactly what Arthur had been afraid of.

"That's better," said Belfrost. "But it seems your loyalty to the Pendragon is incurable, which, I'm afraid, leaves me with only one option."

"Kill me then," said Merlin, his voice cracking a bit. "Just don't hurt them, please!"

"Merlin, no!" Arthur gasped in horror, as Merlin turned away from Belfrost and knelt on the ground as though waiting for a killing blow to land. No! Arthur couldn't let this happen! Didn't Merlin see that letting them kill him wouldn't save anyone?

Then Arthur saw Merlin's face. His eyes were golden and his lips were moving as if he were muttering something very quickly just under his breath. Arthur tried to keep the shock off of his own face so as not to give Merlin away. Apparently Merlin's acting skills were as sharp as ever. He had turned away from them in order to cast a very long spell! And Belfrost and Morgana hadn't realized anything going by the victorious looks on their face.

Arthur tried to look as impassive and unsuspicious as possible as he looked towards the enemy sorcerers. Fortunately, they didn't seem to be paying him much mind.

Belfrost looked at Morgana and waved his hand between her and Merlin in a gesture of yielding the pleasure to her. Arthur wondered if Belfrost was wary of a trap and didn't want to attack himself, but Morgana apparently did not consider this and stepped forward with an evil grin on her face.

"Fleoge seax forth!" she said gleefully and a long dagger flew out from somewhere on her and hovered over the back of Merlin's neck. Arthur had a moment of panic that Merlin would be so distracted by whatever he was doing that she actually would kill him, but then he remembered that Merlin's ring should protect him.

"To think it would end like this," Morgana purred. She looked as if she was thoroughly enjoying this moment. "How well you kept your secret. How well you protected my brother. Who would have thought – a lowly servant with all that power! But look at you now – helpless and weak! You deserve to die like this – a servant kneeling in the dirt! See how the great Emrys has lowered himself! They said you would be my doom but now, now I will be yours! Goodbye Emrys! Hine fordon!"

At her last words, the knife flung itself straight towards Merlin's neck. However, it merely bounced off of him and landed to the side, clattering loudly on the ground.

Morgana was momentarily stunned. She looked like she didn't have a clue what had just happened. But before either she or Belfrost could do anything else, Merlin's chant suddenly became audible as he finished the last words, "…forpeccan beteon!"

Arthur had expected him to turn and direct his spell at their enemies, but instead he raised his hand towards the cage of hostages. Suddenly the whole cage was encased in what looked like the top half of a giant soap bubble, as a large magic shield formed around it. He turned back to Morgana and Belfrost, now grinning.

Belfrost looked like he had just been forced to swallow the most disgusting of Gaius' potions and for a moment he stared at the cage with a look of intense concentration, his fist clenching in his pocket where he had the keys, before looking away in frustration. Arthur understood now what Merlin had done. His giant bubble spell must be blocking Belfrost from activating the bracelets! This was brilliant! Now there was nothing to stop Merlin taking those two down!

Morgana attacked first, sending a beam of green light at Merlin, which bounced off of him. Merlin threw what looked like lightning from his hands back at Morgana, who dove into the ground to dodge the attack.

Belfrost, using Merlin's temporary distraction with Morgana, cast a spell of his own. Suddenly Arthur couldn't breathe. No matter how much he tried to inhale, it was like there was no air, and Merlin's face told Arthur that he was also affected. Belfrost must have realized that Merlin had a spell that protected him from direct attacks and had instead done something to the air around them.

Then Merlin's eyes glowed and suddenly Arthur's lungs filled with air. As he gasped and tried to catch his breath, he realized that Merlin must have silently cast two spells while they were choking, because not only was the air back, but a set of chains appeared and flung themselves at Belfrost, wrapping tightly around him. Belfrost fell to the ground, struggling against the chains.

Morgana had meanwhile gotten back to her feet and had just finished another spell. Merlin's neckerchief suddenly transformed into a snake. Morgana must have also realized that direct attacks would just bounce off of Merlin. The snake reared its head, fangs exposed, and lunged at Merlin's neck. For a moment Arthur panicked, remembering that the ring couldn't protect against poison, but before the blow landed, the snake turned into a chain of daisies. Arthur had seen little girls string flowers together to make them into necklaces just like it and now Merlin had one around his neck in the middle of a magical death duel! For goodness sake!

Morgana had tried to use the moment that Merlin was busy changing the snake around his neck into a flower necklace to cast another spell, but she wasn't quick enough. Merlin threw a fireball at her wordlessly and she had to cut off her incantation to deflect it. Not wasting a second, Merlin flung a second fireball and this time it hit her full in the chest. She fell to the ground and groaned in pain.

Arthur turned quickly to Belfrost, unsure if he would have freed himself while Merlin was fighting Morgana, but he seemed to still be on the ground. It really looked like Merlin had pretty much won already. Two against one, but both his opponents were unmoving on the ground!

Arthur turned to Merlin, expecting him to show some sign that the hardest part of the battle was over. However, he was not expecting to see a look of horror briefly cross Merlin's face the moment he turned from Morgana to look at Belfrost, before suddenly Merlin's entire body seemed to be engulfed in a blue light. Belfrost must have cast some new spell! Arthur looked and realized that although he may have been on the ground, the chains were no longer holding him. He must have been pretending to be incapacitated in order to cast this weird light spell. But Merlin could reverse it. He must be able to! Arthur looked back at Merlin and was horrified to see that not only was he still glowing, but his face did not show any sign that he was prepared to deal with this new situation. Then, to his increasing horror, Arthur realized that he could see Belfrost _though_ Merlin. Merlin was fading away into the light.

"Merlin!" Arthur tried to grab onto his friend, but his hand passed right through where Merlin's shoulder had been, where now there was only a mass of blue light. Then the light that had been Merlin moved as though it was being forced against its will towards Belfrost, who held up what looked like the largest diamond Arthur had ever seen. Then Merlin's light was sucked into the diamond and vanished.

"NO!"

Arthur couldn't believe it! Merlin was – Merlin was gone! This couldn't have happened! Merlin couldn't disappear! Arthur needed him!

Arthur ran towards Belfrost, his mind only capable of one thought – he needed to get that diamond! He didn't know how, but Merlin was in that diamond! He had to be!

Then Arthur heard the one thing that could have broken through his determination. Guinevere screamed. Arthur stopped moving and turned to see Guinevere crying in pain in the cage. The shield must have disappeared when Merlin had… when Merlin had been… when Merlin had been taken.

"Stop!" said Arthur desperately, holding up his hands in surrender. "Stop!"

Thankfully, Arthur saw the pain leave her.

Belfrost sat up and then got stiffly to his feet, still clutching the strange diamond.

"What did you do?" asked Morgana, who was also getting up, although she looked like she was in a lot of pain.

"I told you Emrys was nothing to fear," Belfrost said, brushing his long hair out of his face. "One just needs to take precautions."

"But how did you do that?"

"Diamonds can capture and store magic," he explained, his lip twitching upwards to a half grin. "With a little adjustment, they can also trap magical beings."

"He's in there?" asked Morgana, sounding nearly as shocked as Arthur was.

"And he's never getting out," said Belfrost with relish, tucking the diamond into his pocket.

Morgana seemed to be regaining some of her previous glee, despite the obvious pain she was in. She turned to Arthur and laughed. "It seems your protector is gone!"

No. It couldn't be true. It couldn't. Merlin was unbeatable! He couldn't be trapped! Even with all the odds against them, from the moment he had woken up in the dungeons, Arthur had never really been afraid that they would not triumph over whatever new threat they faced. After all, Merlin had been there. Merlin was always there and they always won in the end.

Now Merlin was gone and Arthur realized that he was alone. What could he do alone?

"Now," said Belfrost, stepping towards Arthur, "are you going to be difficult, or are you going to come with me back to your cell?"

Arthur just stared at Belfrost. He couldn't give in. He couldn't let them win. But what could he do? Merlin was gone. How could he fight them?

"Be reasonable," Belfrost continued, "you are not foolish enough to think there is anything you can do in this situation."

He was right. Arthur took a step towards him.

"No Arthur!" shouted Guinevere. "They'll kill you! Run! Save yourself! Letting them kill you won't save us!"

Run? Save himself? What was the point? Even if he escaped here and now, there was nothing he could do to come back and help anyone. Arthur couldn't fight off two powerful sorcerers. Arthur couldn't remove enchanted bracelets. He needed Merlin. Only Merlin could save Guinevere. Only Merlin could save Camelot. But Merlin was gone. Without Merlin, there was no hope. Without Merlin, Arthur might as well already be dead.

Arthur bowed his head and allowed Belfrost to lead him to the dungeons.


	13. Chapter 13 – Resistance

**Chapter 13 – Resistance**

Arthur sat alone in the dungeon feeling nothing but despair.

The moment Merlin had vanished he felt like his whole world had shattered. They had lost. In that moment everything had been lost. Without Merlin, what was the point in resisting? How could he go on without Merlin at his side?

There was no way to rescue Merlin and no one else he could turn to. Arthur had experienced only a moment of hope when he remembered the ring the druids had given him. He felt sure for a moment that they must have foreseen this happening and given it to him to somehow help him. His hope turned to excitement when he looked at the ring and found that the jewel had turned from green to red. But he had tried poking and prodding the jewel, concentrating on it really hard, and even banging it against a wall but the ring did nothing. After several hours of the ring proving itself to be entirely unhelpful, all shred of the hope it had given Arthur had faded away. There was no indication that anything had changed besides the colour. Arthur had eventually come to think that the red colour was just a signal that his life was near its end.

He had been informed that he would be executed that day at sunset.

Morgana had already come down to the dungeons and had her fun gloating at him and telling him how much she hated him. She seemed to have healed herself after her battle with Merlin and had been very pleased the whole time she had spent reveling in Arthur's despair. She had been positively ecstatic to tell Arthur that this day would be his last.

Arthur had been slightly surprised by Morgana's decision to have him executed in such a hurry. It was more in her nature to keep him alive indefinitely for gloating purposes. He suspected it was actually Belfrost's idea. He could see a chopping block being assembled through the cell window. He didn't think that would have been the execution method of choice for Morgana, but Belfrost had probably learned a thing or two from Lot in terms of how to intimidate a population. Arthur's head on a spike would crush the hopes of anyone thinking that they could rally around the old king. There would be no point in anyone resisting the new rulers in the hope of returning to the old ways if there was nothing to return to.

The army that Arthur had sent to the north had returned while he was imprisoned. He knew this because the remaining cells of the dungeon had been filled with the highest ranks of his knights. Clearly the returning soldiers had been subdued by the threat of harm to the hostages and, as an extra measure, the ones most likely to make trouble for the new regime were locked away so they would not have the chance to try anything.

It was another reason that it was in Morgana and Belfrost's best interests to have Arthur killed. The knights would never properly cooperate while Arthur still lived. They would need to be imprisoned until he was dead and their spirits could really be broken.

The moment that Belfrost and Morgana had left the dungeons, the knights had implored the guards to free Arthur and they had actually given in and opened his cell. But Arthur refused to leave. He would not save himself and allow his wife and his people's children to be tortured. He spoke to the guards and asked them to continue cooperating and to go through with the execution – for Guinevere's sake and for the children. He also asked the knights not to hold it against them.

As the sun grew low in the sky, both Morgana and Belfrost came to his cell in person to escort him to the chopping block. As he was led outside, he removed the ring Merlin gave him and tucked it into his pocket. It would be better to have this over with quickly.

When he died, what would happen to Merlin? Would he be trapped forever? What was it like for Merlin in the diamond – could he think and feel? Would be trapped conscious and alone for eternity? Or was he unknowing and unthinking as though dead, but unable to pass to the next world? Either way, someone as good and kind as Merlin did not deserve such a cruel end. Arthur may be going to his death, but Merlin had suffered a far worse fate, and knowing that he would never be able to rescue Merlin made his steps to his own death all that much heavier.

What would happen to Guinevere and the children? Would they spend the rest of their lives imprisoned and tortured as leverage? It was not fair that Arthur would have such a mercifully swift end, leaving others to live on and suffer. He wanted to help them. He wanted to help everyone. But he couldn't. By his death, or by his life, he couldn't save anyone now.

He was led out to the courtyard. Morgana and Belfrost stood in front of the castle steps, away from the crowd of onlookers, who stood on the other side of the execution platform and the cage, which were in the middle of the courtyard. Arthur continued walking even without them forcing him. He climbed alone onto the platform where the chopping block was assembled and an executioner in a black hood waited for him.

Arthur rested his head on the block and closed his eyes. The swing would come any moment now. He wished more than ever he could say he had no regrets in the end. But how could his end come when Merlin was trapped, Guinevere was imprisoned and Camelot was not safe for anyone? He didn't want to go! He needed to save everyone! But there was nothing he could do! In this moment, dying was the most he could do for Guinevere. But it wasn't enough! She wouldn't be safe! But he couldn't do anything more! He couldn't save anyone! He didn't want to die without saving anyone!

Why was it taking so long? Please just let this misery end!

Then Arthur heard running footsteps, voices shouting, swords being drawn and screaming. He quickly opened his eyes and lifted his head. What he saw before him was confusion. There was white smoke everywhere and guards seemed to be choking on the smoke and trying to escape it as though it hurt them. People were running out from the crowd below, wearing cloth masks over their faces that concealed everything but their eyes, and throwing small white objects. The steps to the castle were so dense with the smoke that he could not even see Morgana and Belfrost. A small puff of the smoke wafted close to Arthur and he felt his eyes and throat burn. Turning around he identified the source of the screams when, to his horror, he saw Guinevere and the children in the cage all clutching their heads and screaming in agony.

NO! Arthur struggled to his feet, jumped off that platform, and ran towards the cage. He had no plan in mind but he had to help them somehow! He had to do something!

"Stop this resistance, or they will continue to suffer!" came Morgana's voice from somewhere, sounding very hoarse.

Arthur was almost to the cage, when a small package, like those that the masked people were throwing, but yellow in colour, landed beside the cage and started emitting a thick yellow smoke. He saw the children in the cage start to collapse, but before he could even react, he inhaled the yellow smoke himself and the chaos around him faded into blackness.

When Arthur woke he was in a panic. How could he have passed out? He needed to save Guinevere! He needed to get to the cage and… and wait, where was he? He had opened his eyes to find that he was lying on a small bed in what looked like a house in the town. About twenty people were crowded into the little room and they were all staring down at him. What on earth had happened?

"Your highness! You're awake!" said the man closest to him, as the others all gave each other excited looks.

"Guinevere, the children," he started to say, but was cut off by the man in front of him.

"They're still asleep. We knocked them out so they wouldn't have to suffer. Didn't expect you to run into the knock-out gas though. It wasn't easy getting you out of there with you being unconscious and all – Sire," he added the title at the end as an afterthought, as though he suddenly realized how candidly he had been speaking to the king.

Arthur, whose mind was still swimming slightly from the effects of the gas, finally understood what had happened in those moments that had gone by too quickly to make sense of at the time. All the people here were ordinary citizens of Camelot. Arthur recognized some of them: a stable-hand who sometimes cared for his horses, a butcher who Arthur gave his extra hunting-game to – knowing that he gave hand-outs to those in need, a red-haired maid who served in the castle, and several other faces who Arthur recognized from seeing them around the castle and town. They had covered their faces to avoid identification and stormed the execution platform, armed with nothing but smoke bombs, to rescue him. Arthur was touched by what these people, few of whom he had ever even spoken to, had done for him.

"I need to go back. When they wake up, Guinevere and the children will be made to suffer for my escape."

"They'll be out for a while yet, Sire," the man said. "Apparently that stuff knocks you out so deep not even magic can wake you. Lucky you just got a whiff of it. And anyways there ain't no way you are goin' back there. If you died – well there wouldn't be no hope, would there?"

"John!" a man who had been keeping watch at the door said urgently to the man Arthur had been talking to. "They're making an announcement."

Arthur jumped out of the bed and joined the people who were now crowding around to look out of the window. The house had a view of the castle and he could see a pair of figures standing on the platform, presumably Morgana and Belfrost. Just as he was thinking that there was no way he would be able to hear what they were announcing from here, he suddenly heard Morgana's voice echoing throughout the room as though she were standing amongst them. Arthur nearly jumped out of his skin before realizing that she was using magic to project her voice over the whole town.

"People of Camelot," she said, "your actions today were foolish to the extreme, but just this once they will go unpunished. However, that will not be the case if you do not comply with the order I am giving you now. Hand Arthur over to me! If Arthur is not standing before me by noon tomorrow, we will take a child from the cage and make them feel the pain with no reprieve until it kills them. I am told this takes hours. And then another child will be selected from the town to take their place in the cage. We will do the same every day at noon until Arthur is turned in. Arthur – if you do not want people to suffer for your sake, come to me by noon tomorrow!"

When the voice ended, the occupants of the room stared at each other in silent horror.

But Arthur, in spite of everything, had found hope in the announcement. Noon tomorrow. She had said it as though they were giving him time to make up his mind, but Arthur was fairly sure they had chosen that time because they wanted to be certain their hostages would be awake by then. But they had given him something invaluable – time. If he could somehow free Merlin tonight, they could all be saved. And if he failed, he could still hand himself in tomorrow. He would not allow a child to die for him.

Arthur realized that everybody was now staring at him. Perhaps some of his thoughts had shown on his face because the man called John asked nervously, "Sire, you're not plannin' on handin' yourself over are you?"

"Only if it comes to that," he said, before getting right down to business. He needed a plan of action. He looked around the room for the one person he needed right now. He hadn't seen him before but he was sure Gaius must have been the one to provide them with the smoke-bombs. Who else could have made such a thing? When he still didn't see him Arthur asked, "Where's Gaius?"

"Back in his chambers pretendin' he had nothin' to do with this," John answered him, "since we figured he'd be the first one Morgana'd suspect after we used them smoke bombs he made us. He's supposed to meet us here once he's cleared of suspicion."

Arthur only felt a sliver of worry that that plan might go awry. If it was anyone else he would not think it so easy to talk their way out of suspicion, but if anyone could convince them he was innocent, despite all the circumstantial evidence otherwise, it was Gaius. He had an amazing talent for keeping himself out of trouble.

"Do you have a plan, Sire?" a man to John's left asked excitedly. "Some way to defeat Morgana?"

They seemed to be under the impression that Morgana was the one in charge and probably thought Belfrost was just helping her. It was understandable since she was the familiar face in Camelot. Belfrost also seemed to be letting her make all the announcements, probably using the fear that the people already had of her to his own advantage. Arthur let it pass though. So long as they defeated them it wouldn't matter which of them had really been in charge.

"I need to release Emrys," Arthur answered. "Only he can defeat them, but they trapped him in a diamond."

"Sire, is it true that Emrys was Merlin this whole time?" the red headed maid asked.

Arthur wondered for a moment how she had realized that, but then he chided himself for missing the obvious. Merlin's epic magical battle in the courtyard had hardly been subtle. Someone was bound to have noticed.

"Yes," said Arthur. There was clearly no point in trying to hide it now. So much for the vague plans he had been thinking of to reveal Emrys to the people ceremoniously at an appropriate time. At his response, the people in the room all looked at each other with raised eyebrows and several sets of whispered conversations broke out amongst them.

"Does anyone know where the diamond they trapped Merlin in is?" he asked, steering them back on track to the job he needed to do.

The people all looked around the room, as though trying to see if anyone else would say something, which no one did. Arthur took that to mean that no one knew.

"Gaius is coming," the man watching the door said suddenly.

A moment later Gaius came in wearing a cloak, no doubt to help conceal him as he snuck out of the castle. When he removed the cloak, Arthur saw that he was carrying a large book with him. Arthur took that as a promising sign. He had wanted to ask Gaius to research how to get a person out of a diamond, but it looked like Gaius might have done so already.

"You heard what happened to Merlin?" Arthur asked him.

"I saw it from the castle window," Gaius answered. "As did half the castle occupants."

Arthur hadn't realized there had been such an audience.

"Do you know how to get him out of the diamond?"

"I do," said Gaius but his voice held a hesitancy that Arthur found foreboding, "but it might not be so easily done."

"What do you mean?"

Gaius put his massive book down on a counter and opened it to a page full of writing in some ancient language Arthur didn't recognize. He didn't know why Gaius was bothering to show him when he should know perfectly well that it would be meaningless to him.

"Merlin is being held in the diamond by the force of his own magic being bound within its structure. However, there is a spell that can draw a person trapped in such a way out of those kinds of bonds."

A spell. Arthur's heart sunk. The only sorcerer he knew was the person who was trapped. Where was he going to find someone else who could cast the spell before tomorrow?

"I believe I will be able to cast this spell," Gaius continued.

Oh yeah! That was right! Arthur had completely forgotten that Gaius used to practice magic. Even knowing that, he had simply never been able to think of Gaius as a sorcerer. But yeah – he could do spells, couldn't he? Brilliant!

"Can you do it now? Or do you need the diamond here to do it?" Arthur asked excitedly.

"I will need the diamond, but even then it will not be so simple," Gaius said, putting a damper on Arthur's excitement. "The spell is a very complicated one. Someone as powerful as Merlin would be able to do it with just the incantation, but with my limited power I will need to enact the whole ritual for it to have a chance of working."

A ritual? That sounded more complicated than just a spell. Arthur was finally starting to understand why Gaius was being so hesitant.

"What does this ritual entail?"

"The spell works by using the bonds that the trapped person has with the world outside of the diamond to draw them back to that world – bonds of love and friendship. The ritual requires a group of people that have close bonds with the trapped person and an object that symbolizes the fellowship between them all, and it must be performed in a place where the trapped person made a connection with the person they are closest to in this world."

Arthur immediately started thinking of who, what, and where they could use for the ritual. It sure seemed like a lot of requirements, but Merlin had lots of people who loved him in this world so it surely could be done. They already had two people here who met the requirement for being close to Merlin, but two people were hardly a "group". Arthur wasn't sure how close any of the other people here were to Merlin but it sounded like the spell required more than just a casual acquaintance so he didn't want to bet on any of them. But who else could they get? Merlin's mother was much too far away, Guinevere was unconscious and locked up, and the knights were all in the dungeons.

Putting the "who" aside for a moment, Arthur tried to think of something that would symbolize fellowship to Merlin. He came up with surprisingly little. If it had been himself he could think of any number of his possessions that symbolized fellowship with various people – gifts, heirlooms, weapons wielded while fighting together. But Merlin had very few possessions and only a couple of the ones that Arthur could think of were gifts from people he loved or anything else of the sort. Arthur felt a sudden guilt as he realized that in all the years that Merlin had worked for him he had never given him anything. Sure Arthur let Merlin use his horses, swords, travel bags and many various other things, but why hadn't he ever given Merlin anything to have as his own? If he managed to free Merlin and actually survive the night, Arthur pledged, he would give Merlin so many presents he wouldn't know what to do with them.

But what could symbolize Merlin's fellowship with a group of people he was close to? The only items Arthur could think of that Merlin possessed that would have such a meaning to him were the magic book that Gaius had given him and the dragon carving his father had left him, but neither of those symbolized fellowship with more than one person. They would be no use for the spell.

So not one of Merlin's possessions then. He had to think of something else. Then suddenly it hit Arthur and he was surprised he hadn't thought of it immediately. It was so obvious! The round table! The table that symbolized equality in all things. Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, Gaius, and the five knights had sat around the table and made plans to partake in what was likely to be a suicide mission together. That table should symbolize the fellowship between all of them if anything did!

Of course, that wasn't such an easy object to get. After he had become king, Arthur had sent his men to retrieve the table from the old castle and bring it to Camelot. But the table was too small to actually be used for council or strategy meetings, so Arthur had stored it in a spare room to be used as a reference for a much larger one that he was planning to commission as soon as he got around to it. So the table was near enough to get to, but if they had to move it – well, it was pretty heavy.

But now an idea was forming in his mind. If they could get the table and free the knights from the dungeons, they would have most of the requirements already. Arthur, Gaius, Gwaine, Leon, Elyan and Percival around the round table would surely be a symbol of fellowship strong enough to draw Merlin out.

"Could you do the spell if we broke the knights out of the dungeons and got the round table," Arthur asked Gaius for confirmation that he understood the spell's requirements properly.

"That would certainly work," Gaius said, choosing not to question Arthur about the feasibility of actually pulling that off. "But where could we perform the ritual? We need a place where the trapped person made a meaningful connection with the person they are closest to in this world."

Arthur's heart sank as he considered what the last requirement was. A place where Merlin had made a connection with the person he was closest to? Surely any place that he had made a connection with his Mother would have to be in Ealdor. Was the only way to summon Merlin back into this world to lug the round table all the way to Ealdor?

"So where have you?" Gaius asked, when Arthur said nothing.

"Huh?"

"Where have you made a connection with Merlin? It should be a place where you had a moment of bonding or learning new things about each other."

Then Arthur realized what Gaius was saying.

"But," he said, feeling awkward, "Hunith?"

"Merlin loves his mother more than life itself for sure, but you are the one who he has devoted his every waking moment to for the past seven years. Who do you really think he is closer to?"

Arthur was rather touched by that. Although, he realized thinking about it, he really should have known all along. But anyways, it did actually make things a lot easier; trying to think of places where he had experienced a connection with Merlin was much more likely to turn up someplace not leagues away.

Although, now that he thought about it, none of the first things that came to mind were actually in Camelot. His first thought was of the time that he had thought he was riding to his death and only Merlin knew of his plan to sacrifice himself, so he had sought to comfort himself by speaking to Merlin of his fear, and then Merlin had jumped in front of a Dorocha for him and offered to sacrifice himself in Arthur's place. His next thought was of when they both offered to drink what they had thought was poison for the other in the labyrinth of Gedref. And there was the time that Arthur had told Merlin about his mother and they had bonded over growing up without a parent. And the moment they shared before going into battle together to defend Ealdor. Why did so many of their heart-to-hearts have to happen outside the city?

He needed to try to think of something closer to home. The most convenient place would be the spare room the table was in, but that probably wouldn't do. It was a very insignificant place and he couldn't remember if he and Merlin had ever even been in that room together. How about his chambers? They certainly spent a lot of time in there together and Arthur could think of a few examples of times they had connected that took place there. There was the time when Merlin had declared his intention to ride out with Arthur to face the dragon, and when Merlin had given Arthur a speech on the eve of battle about how he should believe in himself, and when Merlin had returned to Camelot despite Arthur rejecting him and they were reunited after Arthur realized that Emrys hadn't betrayed him. That could work, but there were a lot of flights of stairs between the room the table was in and his chambers. Was there really any possible way that they could spend several hours lugging a massive stone table up so many steps without Belfrost and Morgana noticing anything?

Surely there must be a place on the same floor as the table that could work just as well. What about the throne room? Arthur could think of surprisingly few moments he had shared with Merlin in the throne room but there were still a couple. There was the time Merlin had stayed up all night so that Arthur wouldn't be alone the night his father died, and the time when Merlin had talked him out of getting married moments before his wedding to Elena, so that might work.

What other possibilities were there? The council chambers? Nothing came to mind.

The banquet hall? Oh, actually, that had potential. Right when they had first met and had already both established a distinct dislike for one another, Merlin had been forced to decide whether or not to save Arthur's life and Arthur had seen Merlin in a whole new light the moment he realized who it was that had pulled him out of the dagger's path. And then Merlin had been made Arthur's servant and they had been forced to forever look at each other differently than they had up to that moment. That had all happened in the banquet hall. And then there was a moment a few days later, after Arthur had fired Merlin and then realized he had been wrong to do so, he had approached Merlin in the banquet hall and made the first apology he could ever remember making to anyone besides his father. He had been desperately hoping at the time that Merlin would still want to be his servant if he rehired him, only then realizing that he actually did want Merlin to work for him and wasn't just putting up with it. And he thought Merlin's reaction to his apology and increased friendliness afterwards meant that, in that moment, he had somehow proved himself in Merlin's eyes. And then there was the time a couple weeks later when Merlin had made the decision to give his life for Arthur's for the first time – when Arthur had tried to grab the poisoned goblet from Merlin's hands saying he would drink it but Merlin had pulled it out of his reach and drunk it himself. That was the first time that Arthur had truly understood the depth of Merlin's loyalty to him. Many of the most significant moments when they had first met and were realized important things about each other seem to have coincidentally happened in the banquet hall. Without those initial connections, they would never have grown so close. It was possible there was no better place to perform the ritual.

"The banquet hall," Arthur said finally, before ticking off the things they were going to need. "We need to get the diamond, move the round table to the banquet hall, and break the knights out of the dungeons."

"We'll split into three groups then?" John asked.

Arthur was touched by the looks of determination on the faces of the people, which told him that they did not question for a moment whether they would help him carry out his dangerous plan. But these people had already risked so much for him and he wanted them to understand that they did not need to continue risking their lives.

"This mission will be a dangerous one. No one should feel hesitant to sit this one out. But I am looking for some volunteers to form two groups – one to move the table and another to free the knights."

"What about the diamond?" John asked.

"I will find the diamond," Arthur said simply.

"Alone?"

"The last I saw of it, Belfrost had the diamond. Without knowing where he put it, it would be much safer to have one person search for it. I will be able to sneak through the castle much easier on my own. Chances are it is somewhere in his chambers and one person alone would be much more likely to go undetected with Belfrost nearby."

The people seemed to accept Arthur's plan, nodding along with his logic. Arthur looked them equally in the eyes and asked, "Who among you will volunteer to move the table and free the knights?"

The room filled with overlapping voices, as every man and woman in the room declared their support for Arthur. Every single person came forward to volunteer.

Arthur smiled, encouraged by their bravery, and started explaining where the table was and how to get into the dungeons undetected. He pulled the ring Merlin had given him out of his pocket and placed it back on his finger in preparation for the mission he was about to embark on.

They were going to get Merlin back!


	14. Chapter 14– Bonds of Love and Friendship

**Chapter 14 – Bonds of Love and Friendship**

Arthur snuck through the castle, heading for his own chambers, where Gaius had informed him that Belfrost was staying. He had already been down to the vaults in case Belfrost had decided to secure the diamond there, but the dust on the gates was undisturbed and it was clear that no one had been down there recently. He had checked the vaults first simply because of the much lower risk of being discovered down there, but it was much more likely that the diamond was closer to Belfrost anyways, which was why Arthur was now headed to his chambers.

Arthur only hoped that he would find the diamond there. He hadn't wanted to mention it to the others, but he knew there was a high likelihood that Belfrost kept the diamond on his person at all times. If that was true Arthur did not know how he was going to get hold of it, but he decided to cross that bridge only if it came to that.

As Arthur climbed the castle stairs, he noticed that the druid ring had turned orange. He still couldn't make any sense of the colour changes. He hadn't actually been paying attention at the time, but he was pretty sure it had been green the whole time he had it before he had noticed the red colour in the dungeons. He had watched it more closely since he had been rescued and it had remained red the whole time he was in the house in the town and searching the vaults. So why was it turning orange now? Arthur had asked Gaius about the ring before they split up but Gaius hadn't known what it was or how it was supposed to work either. Arthur had asked Gaius to return to his chambers and research colour-changing rings in his books and then meet them in the banquet hall at the appointed time whether or not he found anything. It would give him something to do in the meantime anyways, since Arthur didn't want to ask the old man to help move a stone table or with the prison break.

Of course, the prison break should not be too dramatic. The plan was to sneak in and explain the situation to the guards and convince them to release the knights. The guards must have seen or heard of the people who had stormed the execution and released Arthur, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince them that the orders came from Arthur himself.

Arthur looked out a window as he was passing by one. Guinevere and the children were still sound asleep. Gaius had explained that the gas they used on them put them in such a deep sleep that they couldn't feel pain, but it would be dangerous to expose them to more of it. So the time limit where they could work against their enemies without the immediate threat of harm to them was set by how long they would stay unconscious.

Arthur approached his chambers quietly through the servant's entrance, scouting out the room from around the corner. The room was empty, so Arthur carefully entered, listening for the sounds of anyone approaching. He searched through the wardrobe, the desk, the cabinet – everywhere the diamond could conceivably be. His hopes were dashed more and more with every moment that he did not find it. He had a very unpleasant suspicion that the diamond had never left Belfrost's pocket.

The only thing that he discovered was that the druid ring had now turned yellow. What was that supposed to mean? It wasn't helping Arthur find the diamond!

Having searched every inch of his chambers, Arthur was forced to concede that the diamond was not there. He could perhaps search Morgana's chambers. There was a slight possibility that she might have convinced Belfrost to hand the diamond over to her. Arthur left his own chambers and headed down the hallway in the direction of Morgana's.

Suddenly he heard footsteps. He quickly entered the nearest room, an empty guest chamber, and pulled the door silently closed. Looking out through a crack in the doorframe, Arthur saw Belfrost coming down the hallway. He held his breath, even though there was no way Belfrost should know he was hiding there. Then he noticed the druid ring had turned green again. Arthur felt excited by that, though he didn't know why. There was no reason to believe that green was better than red or any other colour, but he still found it encouraging that the ring looked like it had when it was first given to him.

Belfrost thankfully passed his hiding spot without incident and turned at the end of the hallway, disappearing down another, the sound of his footsteps dying away.

Then Arthur noticed that the ring was yellow again. It didn't make any sense? Why did it turn green just for that moment? It couldn't have been a coincidence that it turned green just as Belfrost walked by. In fact, it had been red when Arthur had been farthest from Belfrost and had become orange, yellow and then green the closer he had come to Belfrost. But why would the ring change colour depending on how close Belfrost was? And it didn't make sense anyways, since the ring had been green the whole time before he had returned to Camelot when Belfrost had been nowhere nearby.

Then suddenly it all made sense to Arthur. It wasn't how close Belfrost was – it was how close Merlin was! The ring had been green every moment that Merlin had been by his side and turned red when they had been separated. The druids had said something about the ring guiding him and bringing him the help he needed when they gave it to him. The colours changed to show him where Merlin was! Arthur's excitement at figuring out what the ring did was nothing compared to the horrible conclusion that he had to draw about Merlin's current location. Belfrost had the diamond. There was no other explanation. That is why the ring was now reacting to Belfrost's proximity. It was now turning orange again, as Belfrost moved further away.

How was he supposed to get the diamond away from a powerful sorcerer? And he would have to do it without detection; because even if he managed to get the diamond, if Belfrost knew he had it he would definitely prevent them from performing the ritual. The ring had helped him locate Merlin, but he was no closer to actually rescuing him.

He felt so alone. Normally when he was in this kind of situation, Merlin was a step behind him – ready to help him pull off some crazy scheme to accomplish the impossible. Even before he had known about Merlin's powers, he had always been an essential part of Arthur's mad ideas and added that touch of magic to make them actually work. How was Arthur supposed to do this without Merlin?

Arthur rubbed the now-orange jewel on the ring absently and said sadly to himself, "If only you were here, Merlin."

Suddenly Arthur saw a sparkle of light in the corner of his eye and turned to find that the diamond had appeared on the floor beside him.

What?!

Arthur's heart soared! Merlin! He grabbed the diamond and held it up in disbelief.

But how did that – the ring! It must have been the ring! So the ring also had the power to summon Merlin? Why hadn't the druids just said so in the first place?! It would have saved him all this trouble! Freaking druids and their ridiculous insistence on being perpetually mysterious!

But he had it! He had the diamond! He had Merlin!

Stupid druids! Arthur was grateful, but still – stupid druids!

Arthur clutched the diamond tightly. Merlin was here. It was so strange to know that Merlin was with him and yet Arthur couldn't talk to him, couldn't see him. It felt so wrong to hold Merlin in his hand like a mere trinket.

"I'm going to get you out of there," Arthur said to the diamond, in case Merlin could hear him.

Then Arthur had a sudden idea – maybe the ring could summon Merlin from the diamond! He touched the now-green jewel of the ring to the diamond. Nothing happened. He spent a few minutes trying various things – rubbing the ring or touching it to the diamond while saying things like, "Merlin, I summon you," before realizing that he was being silly. There was probably only so much the druids could enchant the ring to do. Turning different colours to locate Merlin and summoning Merlin to his side was probably complicated enough without trying to add a diamond-extraction spell – which Gaius said was really hard to do anyways.

Arthur decided he needed to stop wasting time tapping jewels together and get back to their original plan. Enough time had passed that the others were probably already waiting for him.

He snuck back down through the castle as quickly as he could and sure enough, entered the banquet hall to find it full of knights, the people who had rescued him, Gaius, and even the guards from the dungeon. The room looked different than he was used to seeing it. During feasts, long tables were brought from other rooms in the castle to be used here, but at the moment none of them were set up. The single piece of furniture in the otherwise empty room was the round table, standing proudly in the center of the room.

The looks of gladness and excitement on everyone's faces when he had entered the room doubled when he held up the diamond. This was it! They had everything they needed!

Gaius came forward and took the diamond from Arthur.

"I need the people who were closest to Merlin to put their hands on the table," Gaius instructed.

Arthur went to the table and joined Gaius, Gwaine, Leon, Elyan, and Percival, who all stood around the table, each with both hands on its surface.

"Now think about Merlin. Try to concentrate on why you want Merlin back. I will cast the spell on the table and then when I place the diamond on the table, Merlin should be drawn out of it – if the spell works," Gaius said.

Think about why he wanted Merlin back? There was nothing easier for Arthur. He had been thinking about why he wanted Merlin back from the moment Merlin had disappeared. Obviously they needed Merlin to defeat Morgana and Belfrost and to save Camelot. But it wasn't just that. Merlin was Arthur's best friend and he missed him and he couldn't stand the thought of never seeing him again. And Merlin deserved to be freed and reunited with everyone who loved him. For Merlin's sake, this needed to work! Arthur didn't just want to free Merlin – he needed to!

Arthur heard Gaius start to chant beside him, "Ic pe pisne beswicfallen sáwol unbanden! Wítebend abrecan! Wítebend réofan! Wítebend toberstan! Eftgemyndgian weoroldcearu wítebend! Geférraeden ond broforscipe wítebend! Gamol wítebend eallníwe abrecan! Ic pe pisne beswicfallen sáwol unbanden!"

When Gaius finished the spell, his eyes turned gold and the whole table glowed for a moment. Gaius took his hands off of the table and pulled the diamond out of his pocket. He reached out to place it on the table to complete the ritual.

This was it! They had done it! Please let this have worked!

Then suddenly Arthur saw every person in the room fly into the air and crash into the back wall. He spun around to see Morgana and Belfrost in the doorway, both with golden eyes and hands outstretched – their combined spells having a much more forceful effect than either was capable of on their own. Arthur alone, protected by Merlin's ring, was left standing.

Merlin! Where was Merlin? He hadn't appeared! The summoning spell must have failed. Arthur scanned the table where Gaius had been about to place the diamond and found no sign of it. It must have been flung out of his hand when he was thrown across the room. Arthur needed that diamond! He ran towards the back of the room, his eyes darting over every inch of the floor desperately. He didn't know if getting the diamond to the table now would still complete the spell but he had to try! There! Arthur praised his lucky stars when he located where the diamond had rolled to on the floor. As he grabbed it, he saw the people who had been thrown back starting to get to their feet, probably ready to rush forward to attack the sorcerers. Not waiting for them, Arthur made to run back to the table, but suddenly found that he couldn't breathe.

Belfrost had made his way to the back of the room and was holding both his hands out, his face tensed in a look of concentration and his eyes glowing gold. He was doing the same spell as before that seemed to somehow take away the air that Arthur's lungs were sure should be there and kept gasping for. Arthur could also hear the rest of the people at the back of the room gasping for air, some of them collapsing back to the floor.

No! Arthur needed to get the diamond to the table! He pressed forward, despite the lack of air burning his lungs, stumbling closer to the table with each step. When he passed where Belfrost was standing he thought the man would do something to stop him but it seemed to be taking a lot of effort from Belfrost to maintain this spell over so many people and as far as Arthur could tell he couldn't actually move right now. The moment he stepped behind where Belfrost stood, Arthur's lungs suddenly filled with air. Sweet refreshing air! The spell must not be affecting specific people but a certain area of the room. Arthur ran towards the table with renewed vigour.

"Get the diamond!" Belfrost shouted.

Morgana had already sent a spell flying at Arthur before Belfrost even spoke, but it had no effect on him. Thank goodness for Merlin's ring! He was halfway there! He could do this!

Then suddenly ropes sprung from nowhere and wrapped themselves firmly around Arthur's legs, tripping him so that he fell to the ground. Then more ropes wrapped themselves around his torso, pinning his arms to his side. No! No, he needed to get the diamond to the table! He needed Merlin!

Morgana walked forward, laughing at how her spell had left Arthur lying helpless on the ground. She bent down and pulled the diamond out of his hand and pocketed it gloatingly, saying, "I'll take that."

Then she drew his sword and held it over him, pointed down at his heart.

"It seems you have some kind of magical protection," she said. "Let's see how long it can withstand this."

And she plunged the sword downwards. It stopped about a foot above Arthur as though some invisible barrier was holding it at bay. Morgana continued pressing down with all her might, waiting for the barrier to fall.

Arthur didn't know what to do. He didn't know how long Merlin's ring could hold off a continuous attack like this. He could still hear the people at the back of the room slowly suffocating. Merlin was still trapped and now that Morgana had the diamond there was no way to free him. This was it. They were all going to die here and now. The kingdom would be lost forever. There was no one else who could stand up to these murderous tyrants. Morgana and Belfrost had won. This wasn't how things were supposed to end!

No! No – he would not let it end like this!

Arthur saw the sword move an inch closer to his chest. And then another inch. It was breaking through the barrier. The ring must be almost out of magic. He was going to have to time this perfectly. He concentrated, focussing on the tip of the sword and nothing else. This was going to take the best of his well-honed warrior reflexes.

The barrier broke and the sword lunged downward. Arthur rolled to the side and the sword missed his chest, slicing through his right arm. Arthur's mind filled with the pain, but also with victory. Yes! That was it! He had managed to position the mass of ropes binding him underneath the sword. The ropes holding his arms now fell loose. Arthur freed his left arm and grabbed Morgana's hand, which was still on the hilt of the sword now lodged in his right arm. In her shock she did not react in time to stop him pulling her roughly to the floor. The moment she fell, he grabbed the diamond from her pocket.

Arthur grabbed the sword embedded in his arm and pulled it out, suppressing the pain that surged through him, and used it to free his legs. He ran towards the table, diamond clutched tightly in his left hand, his right arm dangling uselessly at his side, streaming blood. He was so close! Almost there!

Then he heard Morgana yell wordlessly and felt like the wind was knocked out of him as he found himself flying through the air. In a last ditch effort, he threw the diamond towards the table, which he had almost made it to. But he did not see where it landed because the next thing he knew he was crashing into the ground, landing painfully on his bleeding arm. He turned over to see Morgana advancing on him, her arm held out towards him, looking murderous.

"Die! Arthur Pendragon!" she said with finality. "Diedan!"

A stream of green light shot from her hand towards Arthur and he knew it was the end. The ring was empty and he had no energy to try to dodge. His death had come.

Then a bright light erupted in front of him, creating a massive shield, which collided with Morgana's spell and knocked it harmlessly to the side.

Arthur spun his head round to look behind him, hardly daring to believe it.

Merlin was standing on the round table.

He was free! The spell worked! Arthur felt relief and joy flow through him like a sudden flood.

"Merlin!" he found himself shouting. He had never been so glad to see someone in his life.

Merlin waved his hand and the people choking at the back of the room were suddenly taking gasping breaths of air that was newly restored to them.

"Miss me?" Merlin asked, grinning.

"You had one job, Morgana!" Belfrost shouted angrily, turning around now that his spell was broken and he didn't need to concentrate on maintaining it.

"Well you weren't much help either," she snapped back.

"Not much –" Belfrost stuttered indignantly, "I took down several dozen people! You had one!"

Despite their angry words, neither of them so much as glanced at the other. It seemed they did not dare take their eyes off of Merlin, as Morgana slowly backed away and Belfrost moved forward.

Merlin jumped down from the table and moved to stand between where Arthur lay unable to move, and the enemy sorcerers.

At the back of the room, the people were sitting up from where they had collapsed, watching intently.

Everybody seemed to be waiting to see who would make the first move.

Then, as though some signal had been struck for them to start, all three sorcerers moved at once. Morgana grabbed something around her neck and shouted the spell Arthur had heard a few times before, which made a person disappear into a whirlwind. Merlin held both his hands straight out to both sides and shouted a spell. Belfrost shouted a spell, his hand pointing towards Arthur.

The spell that Belfrost sent towards Arthur bounced off a massive glittering, yellow, transparent barrier that had appeared suddenly, forming a circle around where the sorcerers stood with Arthur on the outside. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling like a massive cylinder and looked much more substantial than the barrier Merlin had created earlier around the hostage cage. Morgana's transportation spell seemed to have no effect and Arthur could only assume that she was unable to leave because she was trapped in the barrier, which must have been the result of Merlin's spell.

Then the barrier started expanded outwards and Arthur did not have time to react before the yellow wall of magic smacked into him and shoved him across the floor until he was near the wall at the edge of the room. Although the barrier had hit Arthur like it was solid, it had passed through the round table as though it was not there, leaving it standing in the middle of the room. Merlin had created a large space in the room, trapping Morgana and Belfrost inside with him and keeping all of the onlookers safe on the outside.

While Merlin was finishing expanding his shield spell, Morgana and Belfrost both attacked. Belfrost cast a spell that broke the chain of the room's giant chandelier, sending it crashing down over where Merlin stood, while Morgana threw fireballs in Merlin's direction, one after another without pause. Merlin jumped aside and the chandelier itself missed hitting him, the glass shards that flew in his direction from where it smashed next to him bounced off of his protection spell. Morgana's first fireball also bounced off of Merlin's protection spell and the next few missed as he became a moving target while dodging the chandelier. No sooner had the chandelier hit the floor than Merlin took control of one of Morgana's fireballs and flung it back towards her. She had to cut off summoning the next one in order to dodge it.

With a wave of Merlin's hand, the hundreds of shards of broken glass that littered the floor flew into the air and flung themselves at Belfrost. They bounced off of his protection spell, but immediately flung themselves at him again, and again. It seemed that Merlin had enchanted them to continue attacking him until his protection spell wore out. Belfrost cut off whatever spell he had been halfway through incanting and started shouting spells at the broken glass that was attacking him, but to no avail. He ran and tried to dodge, still shouting spells, as the glass followed him and continued to pummel him.

Morgana threw three more fireballs at Merlin in the moment he had spent enchanting the glass shards. She seemed to have decided to use them to wear down his protection spell, since she could summon them very quickly. However, her plan did not seem to be working very well as the first fireball she threw earlier had been the only one to actually hit its target while Merlin had been distracted by the chandelier. Of the three that she threw this time, two were dodged and the third was flung back at her, forcing her to jump out of the way of her own attack again.

While she was busy dodging the fireball, Merlin shot a stream of orange light at her, which she tried to deflect by summoning a magical shield in front of herself. However, when Merlin's spell hit her shield it was as though she had taken a blunt physical attack, which the shield only spread out the force of, rather than stopping it completely, and she was sent flying backwards. She crashed into the magical barrier that Merlin had created earlier and fell to the floor.

Ouch, thought Arthur. That must have hurt.

Before Arthur could tell whether or not she was still conscious, the answer became obvious as the floor turned black under her hand and a line of blackness shot out across the floor towards Merlin. Merlin jumped onto the round table to get away from the floor, which had turned to a black tar-like substance that bubbled like a boiling liquid in a circle where he had been standing a moment previously.

As Morgana got back to her feet and Merlin regained his balance after jumping onto the table, Belfrost seemed to have finally gained control of the shards of glass that had been chasing him in circles around the room and he sent them all flying towards Merlin. Merlin made no move, but his eyes glowed and he was pelted with drops of water that had previously been glass.

Morgana raised her arm to cast a new spell, but Merlin glanced in her direction with golden eyes and she flew backwards and hit the barrier at the edge of the room again.

Merlin had an intense look of concentration on his face and was not even blinking. His attention was on Belfrost, who had just finished a new spell. Suddenly, beams of bright yellow light erupted from a dozen places around the room focussed on Merlin. Arthur realized with horror that Belfrost must have been setting up some big spell while he had been running around the room, supposedly just trying to escape the glass.

The light was so bright Arthur had to squint as he tried to see what was happening. He couldn't see Merlin anymore. The place where Merlin had stood on the round table was engulfed completely in yellow light where the beams all intersected and amplified each other. Then all of a sudden the light was gone. Arthur had to blink away the after-effects of the bright light before he could see properly again, but it still took him only seconds to panic as he realized that Merlin had vanished.

No! He was gone! This couldn't happen again!

Then as Arthur's vision returned to normal, he realized that Merlin wasn't gone. He was standing on the other side of the room in a completely different place than he had been before. The only possible course of events that Arthur could imagine that led to him being there was that he had slowed down time and crossed to the other side of the room before the light beams had converged on where he had been standing. Merlin must have seen Belfrost's attack coming this time.

Arthur breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever that big pre-planned spell of Belfrost's had been – Merlin had dodged it. Arthur took a second to appreciate that the sorcerer with the power to control time was the one on his side.

Then he realized that Belfrost was no longer standing where he had been before. He had run to the round table and grabbed – the diamond! Crap! Arthur had forgotten about that! If Merlin got sucked into the diamond again all would be lost!

As Belfrost's hand closed around the diamond however, his victorious expression turned to shock.

"Are you looking for this?" asked Merlin, holding up – the diamond? How did Merlin also have the diamond?

Belfrost looked in horror at the diamond in his hand and immediately threw it away. It bounced once and then disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

Belfrost held up the hand that he had picked the fake diamond up with and stared at it in terror, his mouth open and his eyes panicked. The hand looked odd; sort of unnaturally stiff and – was Arthur imagining it or did it look kind of grey? Then in an instant Arthur realized what he was looking at. Belfrost's hand had turned to stone. And it didn't stop there. It was spreading quickly down his arm and through the rest of his body. Before Belfrost could even cry out he had turned completely to stone. He had become a statue depicting his own terrified last moment in life. The room suddenly fell deadly silent. It was quite eerie. Arthur had no idea Merlin knew how to cast such a creepy curse. He understood that Belfrost's protection spell meant it would take more than a regular spell to defeat him, but it was still unnerving.

Merlin himself now stood silent and still, staring at the statue with an unfathomable expression on his face.

Arthur couldn't help but feel that there was something else very important that they should be dealing with. Something he had forgotten about. Something – Morgana! Wait – where was Morgana? Arthur looked around trying to locate her, expecting her to attack Merlin at any moment, but he couldn't see her anywhere in the room. Where could she be? There weren't a lot of places she could be hiding in the empty space. He had already seen her transportation spell fail, so how could she possibly have gotten out of Merlin's barrier?

"Where's Morgana?" Arthur called out to Merlin.

"She got away," said Merlin staring down at the floor. "Sorry, I was distracted for a moment."

Well jeez – he didn't have to feel so bad about it. Arthur was about to tell Merlin that, when he realized that Merlin wasn't staring at the floor in shame, he was looking down at the room below this one through a massive hole in the floor. Since when had that been there?! Then he realized that it was in the exact spot where Morgana had turned the floor into a weird black bubbling liquid. Apparently it had burned a hole through the floor. Well at least that answered where she disappeared to.

But she was no longer a threat – at least not here and now. In the shock of Belfrost's fate and the confusion of Morgana's disappearance, Arthur was a little bit belated in realizing something rather important – they had won. They won! Camelot was safe again! Merlin was free from the diamond! Guinevere and the children would wake up safe and free! The people of the kingdom were no longer in danger!

Arthur took a deep relaxing breath and laid back to rest his head on the floor where he was lying. Suddenly he realized that he was in agony. In the heat of the moment, his mind had shut out any interference with his instincts to fight by suppressing his physical pain. But now that the danger had passed, Arthur was starting to properly feel the effects of the stab wound in his arm. The amount of blood that was coming out of it was also rather worrying.

Arthur tried to call Merlin over and ask if he could please heal his arm, but all that actually came out was a feeble, "Merlin."

"Arthur!"

Merlin, who had still been staring down the hole, seemed to come back to himself from a daze and ran to Arthur, the barrier spell shattering into a thousand shards of light that twinkled and vanished. In an instant Merlin was at Arthur's side, chanting a healing spell over his arm. When he was done, it looked as though it had never been harmed and Arthur found he could move his fingers again. The pain also died away, although the muscle exhaustion and the dizziness from blood loss remained.

Merlin helped Arthur to his feet. He seemed to understand that although logic may dictate that it would be better to stay on the floor and rest, Arthur would prefer to stand at a time like this.

Merlin looked over to the crowd of people at the back of the room, who all seemed to be speechless after what they just witnessed. Arthur realized that, being inside a diamond at the time, Merlin would have no idea that these people had already known his true identity before seeing him using magic just now, albeit only for less than a day. He looked rather sheepish and had nothing to say besides, "Uhm…"

Merlin's nervous reaction seemed to stir the people from the stupor that had fallen over them and they broke into cheers and applause. Merlin looked quite taken aback at that response.

Merlin's friends rushed forwards and Gaius pulled Merlin into a big hug before he was pulled away by Gwaine who apparently also wanted to hug Merlin. In no time at all, the entire group of people were around Merlin, thanking him, hugging each other and generally celebrating their victory.

It was good to see Merlin finally getting some appreciation. How many times had he saved Camelot like this when no one had ever seen or known? How many times had he saved their lives and instead of cheers and hugs, got laughed at and given chores? But not anymore. Arthur was going to make sure that from now on Merlin got the gratitude and recognition he deserved.

In fact, Arthur wanted to thank Merlin right now. But Merlin was still surrounded by people hugging him and patting him on the back. Arthur would thank him later in private. It would not be dignified for Arthur, as a king, to join the crowd in their merriment.

Then Merlin glanced back at Arthur and all his thoughts of respectably staying out of the revelry flew from his mind. Not caring that people were watching, Arthur pulled Merlin into a full hug and said, "Thank you, Merlin. Thank you."

As he hugged Merlin, Arthur felt a kind of peace come over him, knowing that Camelot was safe. It wasn't just because they had overcome the current threat, but also because he felt that the future of the kingdom was in good hands. He would make Merlin his Court Sorcerer, which would leave him free to openly use powerful protection spells to secure the citadel. Morgana was still out there and there would surely be many threats to Camelot in the days to come, but Arthur wasn't worried. They had made it through every challenge so far and from now on Camelot would only grow in strength. With the combined might of the knights of Camelot, and Merlin – no longer restricted by secrecy, Arthur felt like they could overcome anything.

**Notes: **

**I get spells by either using ones they used in the show, or else making them up by typing words into an Old English (the language the show used for spells) translator and putting them together. I don't bother trying to conjugate the words or understand Old English grammar, but all the spells have words that match the meaning of what the spell does. However, I didn't bother recording what English words I used to make most of the spells. But I wrote down what I put in for Gaius' spell, so if anyone is interested, the translation is "I command this trapped soul to be released! Bonds break! Bonds rend! Bonds be rent asunder! Remember your bonds to this world! Bonds of friendship and brotherly love! Old bonds break the new! I command this trapped soul to be released!"**


	15. Chapter 15 – The Beginning

**Chapter 15 – The Beginning**

"Hi, Merlin!"

"Morning, Merlin!"

"Good morning, Merlin, I hope you are well."

"Hey, Merlin, come to the tavern later if you have time!"

Merlin had never felt as incredibly visible as he did now. Not only friends, but casual acquaintances and even complete strangers acknowledged him as he passed them in the hallway. Now that the entire population knew that he was a powerful sorcerer he could no longer blend into the background and go unnoticed as he had up until now. Sure in the seven years he had spent in Camelot prior to this moment he had become quite well known – but that had been different. People may have known who he was, but he doubted they ever gave him much thought and most people certainly hadn't bothered trying to interact with him. But now he suddenly found himself the focus of every room he entered – for better or for worse.

Everyone was treating him differently. He couldn't decide whether it was good or bad. He supposed in reality it was a mixture of both. Some people seemed to be going out of their way to avoid him, even indiscreetly making hasty retreats if they saw him coming, while many others who had never spared him a glance before were suddenly stopping to talk to him. He could almost swear Lydia was following him. He certainly seemed to see her red hair everywhere he went. She always just happened to be at the wash basin next to his when he was doing laundry, and fetching her mistress' dinner when he was in the kitchen, and grooming her mistress' horses when he was in the stables. Not to mention, every moment he spent around her she kept up an endless barrage of questions to the point that he was at a loss to understand how she never ran out of them.

The funny thing was that he was still doing the work of a servant. He was spending a week training a castle servant named Ransley, who would be his replacement as Arthur's manservant. It seemed incredibly unfair, since he had never had training when he first got the job. He was just thrown into it and expected to figure it all out on his own. He had a sneaking suspicion that Arthur secretly wanted him to train his next servant to be less formal and boot-licking than most of the servants were around the king. Well, whether or not it was Arthur's intention it was certainly something Merlin had taken upon himself to do. After all, what else was he supposed to train Ransley to do? Merlin's lessons certainly did not involve how to complete chores.

In the time they had spent together, Ransley had gone from fearfully agreeing with everything Merlin said as though he was terrified of being turned into a toad, to vocally expressing his horror at the disrespectful names that Merlin called Arthur, so Merlin figured he was at least learning to have a little backbone. Ransley hadn't bowed as low or as long as usual to Arthur when they had dropped his breakfast off for him, which Merlin took as a sign that he was making progress in his training.

"If he throws something at you, that's how you know you've done a good job waking him up in the morning," Merlin was saying to Ransley as they made their way to the armoury after waking Arthur up and bringing him his breakfast. "If he doesn't even throw a pillow it means you weren't annoying enough. In that case…"

Merlin had to suddenly cut himself off as he nearly collided with Lydia, who had just come around a corner in the hallway.

"Merlin! Fancy running into you again after we were just talking in the kitchens!"

Who did she think she was fooling?

She dove right into what she had obviously contrived this accidental meeting to ask, "Did you enchant the chamber pots in the castle to be harder to find the more desperate you are to use one?"

"Of course not!" Merlin replied with raised eyebrows. "Why on earth would I do that?"

"Hah! I knew old man Archie was wrong about that! He seems to think that just because he was right once that people should believe any old nonsense he says!"

"Yeah, that's Archie for you. Well I'll talk to you later, I have to get on with my work for now," Merlin said, hoping to get away before he got stuck in a long conversation and got in trouble for being late bringing Arthur his chainmail.

"Can you turn into a falcon?" Lydia asked, completely ignoring his not-so-subtle hint that he wanted to leave. "Because John said yesterday that he saw a merlin land on the battlements."

Conversations with Lydia often gave some very interesting insight into what the people of Camelot were talking about.

"It wasn't me. Just because my name is Merlin, doesn't mean I turn into one."

"Can you though?"

Merlin considered it for a moment. He had never looked into it and was now actually starting to wonder how hard it would be. It would be really useful and possibly incredibly fun to turn into a bird. He decided to add that to his rather long mental list of 'spells I will try when I have time'.

"I've honestly never tried," he said in answer to her question.

"The real question," said a voice behind Merlin and he turned around to see Gwaine coming down the hallway towards him, "is can you turn _me_ into a bird? After all – you did promise you would make me fly one day."

Merlin didn't remember promising any such thing. The only time it had come up was when Gwaine had asked him to fly him through the air and Merlin had tried to control the 'fly' spell to create a gentle flight rather than throwing the person roughly through the air as it usually did. He had failed spectacularly and Gwaine hadn't brought it up again after that day. Had Gwaine somehow continued that conversation in his head to include Merlin promising to make him fly one day?

"Looking back," said Merlin, "I probably should have used a 'levitate' spell back then, rather than a 'fly' spell."

Gwaine put his hands on his hips and grinned.

"Go on then," he said excitedly, obviously interpreting Merlin's words to mean that he was going to try the levitation spell now.

Did Gwaine really not see any possible downside to letting a sorcerer try out new spells on him?

Merlin shrugged. If Gwaine was a willing test subject, who was he to say no? He concentrated and lifted Gwaine into the air with magic. The levitation spell got harder to control the heavier the object was and Gwaine was definitely heavier than the types of things he usually lifted in the air with magic, but Merlin thought it was still well within his capabilities. After all, he had once lifted the entire collapsed roof of the throne room, albeit only for a very short time.

"Whoooo!" Gwaine exclaimed as though he was having the time of his life.

He flapped his arms like a bird and then moved them in strokes as though trying to swim through the air. His excitement dampened, however, when he remained in the same spot.

"Uh, Merlin, why can't I move?"

"Well this would be a lot easier if you weren't so heavy," Merlin said. It wasn't terribly hard just holding Gwaine in the air, but his weight meant that it would take concentration to move him in a controlled manner and he certainly couldn't think on the spot of any way to give Gwaine control over his own movements.

"I think I should be insulted by that."

"Ok, here we go," said Merlin and he made Gwaine float away from him down the hallway.

"Weeee!" Gwaine called out childishly.

Then Geoffrey de Monmouth came into the hallway, holding a large stack of papers and walking with a determined look on his face. He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings and didn't see Gwaine floating in the air above him.

Gwaine, of course, shouted, "Boo!"

Geoffrey jumped and the mass of papers he was holding went flying spectacularly in every direction, including out a nearby open window. Merlin sighed in exasperation and lowered Gwaine to the floor. He ran to the window and made the papers that were floating down into the courtyard below fly back up and into his hands. He added them to the stack of papers that Geoffrey, Gwaine, Ransley and Lydia had picked up from where they were scattered around the corridor.

"Sorry about that," he said, although he felt like it should really be Gwaine who was apologizing.

"Not at all, not at all. I wasn't looking where I was going," said Geoffrey, who had been acting much nicer to Merlin since his true identity had been revealed. "I was looking for you actually. I was wondering if you would do something for me."

"Sure, what do you need?" Merlin asked. It was very odd how Geoffrey de Monmouth, who had always seemed to think of Merlin as nothing more or less than 'liable to mess up my books', had recently started speaking to him as though they were colleagues or something.

"Well, it was a little project that I started about thirty years ago. It was only supposed to take me a few months but you know how one thing leads to another and suddenly thirty years has gone by. First I was busy working on other things, and then I completely forgot about it for a while, and then I was busy again, and then the purge happened and I couldn't work with sorcerers anymore. Anyways, I'd like to finish what I started back then."

Geoffrey paused as though waiting for Merlin to respond. Merlin, however, did not know what to say. In his rambling answer, Geoffrey hadn't actually said what he wanted Merlin to do.

"Erm, so what is this project?"

"These are genealogies of the knights of the ancient kings," Geoffrey said, shoving the entire stack of papers into Merlin's arms, "but the ink has faded, making them completely illegible. I used to know a man – great scholar he was, you know. Always a thirst for knowledge. Man after my own heart, as it were. Anyways we were both very interested in history and we had a good old time pouring through these pages together. He was a masterful magician and he knew this spell where he could look at the faded ink and magically see what it used to say. He would read the words that had been lost to time and I would transcribe them anew – preserving the knowledge for generations to come!"

Merlin couldn't imagine anything more boring! How on earth was he going to get out of this?!

"Thing is, we only got through about half of them before –" Geoffrey seemed to choke on his words a bit. "Well it was a sad day," Geoffrey looked down and added quietly, "I'll never forget that day."

Merlin felt his heart soften. Well, he thought, it wouldn't hurt to help Geoffrey translate his boring papers. How bad could it be?

"I'll look up that spell," Merlin promised, hoping he wouldn't regret this later. "And when I have time I'll help you with your project."

Geoffrey smiled at him and Merlin felt a strange kind of companionship with the old man.

"Why don't you hold on to these for now," Merlin said, handing the stack of papers back to him. "I wouldn't want them to get lost or anything."

Geoffrey took the papers and held them as though they were his only child. He always had been a bit odd.

"Anyways I need to get on with my chores," Merlin said, and he pulled Ransley down the next corridor, leaving the others behind. Thankfully they let him go without further interruption – even Lydia, who he had been slightly worried might follow him.

They were almost at the armoury when Merlin suddenly felt as though something was pulling him and the world seemed to jerk as his surroundings suddenly changed. He lost his balance and fell over, landing on the floor of Arthur's chambers. Come on, he thought, not again for goodness sake!

"Yeah, it still works for me," Arthur said to Gwen. They were both standing beside where he had fallen, looking down at him.

Merlin got to his feet. It was very disconcerting suddenly going from one place to another without prior warning. He glared at Arthur. "I thought we agreed you would only use the ring in emergencies."

Merlin had been rather annoyed to discover that the ring the druids had given Arthur was enchanted to summon him to Arthur's side whenever Arthur rubbed the jewel and called for him. They sure had a lot of nerve making such a thing without his permission. If they wanted Arthur to be able to summon magical help they should have made the enchantment summon one of them! When Merlin had complained about it to Arthur he had told Merlin that he was being ungrateful, since the ring had helped save him from being trapped in a stone for all eternity. But seriously – what if Arthur summoned him when he was doing something important? Or bathing? Merlin couldn't help but think that the druids had not properly thought this one through.

"Sorry, sorry," said Arthur, not really sounding like he meant it. "I wanted to see if the ring could be used by other people too, but it didn't work for Guinevere. Nothing happened when she tried it so I just needed to make sure that I could still use it and it wasn't because it stopped working completely."

"So the ring only works for you," Merlin summated. It was rather comforting knowing that he didn't need to worry about being summoned by someone who stole the ring from Arthur, but Merlin was too annoyed at the moment to feel appreciative of that knowledge.

"Do you realize that I just left this room to fetch your chainmail from the armoury? I went down all those flights of stairs and was almost there and now suddenly I'm back where I started! Do you have any idea how frustrating that is?"

"Don't be such a baby, Merlin," Arthur said unrepentantly. "You could use the extra exercise."

"Well I'm not going all the way back down there again," Merlin said stubbornly. "You can go to your morning training with no chainmail."

"That's fine with me," said Arthur. "I'll just wear the ring you gave me again."

He could be so frustrating sometimes!

"I told you not to wear that ring during training," Merlin said. "I shouldn't have to refill the magic in it just because you used it all up by letting the knights smack you repeatedly with swords!"

"Well then," said Arthur triumphantly, "you'll have to get my chainmail."

But Merlin was not going to give in. He concentrated on the hallway where he had left Ransley and cast the spell that let him throw his voice to another location, saying, "Ransley, go get Arthur's chainmail without me and bring it up to his chambers."

Merlin grinned at Arthur. There – he had won hands down.

"You've probably given him a heart attack," Arthur said disapprovingly.

"He'll recover," Merlin said dismissively.

"Anyways, I'm glad you're here," Arthur said, suddenly changing topics and talking as though Merlin had just stopped by coincidentally rather than been summoned against his will. "I want you to do a favour for me."

"Well you have a funny way of asking," Merlin said in annoyance. It was obvious to him by Arthur's sudden change to a forced-casual tone that this was the real reason he had been summoned, and testing the ring with Guinevere had only been a secondary motive. He had obviously been stalling before and had only just worked up the nerve to ask it. But Merlin was not too happy to be pulled away from what he had been doing because Arthur wanted a favour.

"It's for Guinevere," Arthur said, the finality in his voice telling Merlin that he knew perfectly well that that would be enough to convince Merlin to do whatever it was.

"Ok," Merlin conceded. Obviously he wouldn't refuse something for Gwen. "What do you need?"

"Can you do this spell?" Arthur asked and handed Merlin a folded up piece of paper.

Merlin unfolded the paper and saw Gaius' handwriting. Obviously they must have asked Gaius for help with something and he had referred them to Merlin because the spell was beyond his own powers.

Then he realized what the spell was and looked up at Gwen in shock and wonder. She was looking excited, nervous, and happy all at the same time. He had a sudden urge to hug her.

"Can you do it?" Arthur asked again, his own voice betraying nerves now.

"Yes, hang on," said Merlin and he reread the spell several times to make sure he would get it right. He was getting pretty nervous himself now.

Merlin took both of Gwen's hands in his own and held them together to form an open cupped shape in front of her, with his hands below hers, and chanted, "Ic pe réocan fealahiw eowan baarneacnigen. Cann réadian. Wipsacendlic hæwen."

A small ball of white smoke appeared over Gwen's hands. Merlin held his breath. This was it – if the smoke turned pink it would mean she was pregnant!

Then the smoke turned pink and Merlin gasped. Gwen and Arthur glanced at each other nervously, obviously unsure what that meant. Merlin let go of Gwen's hands, dismissing the spell, and exclaimed, "Congratulations!"

Gwen burst into tears of joy and ran into Arthur's arms. Arthur picked her up in the hug and twirled her around. Merlin felt his own face plastered with a compulsive grin so big he couldn't seem to close his mouth properly.

Merlin couldn't be happier for his friends. He knew that they both wanted this more than anything.

Arthur and Gwen kissed and Merlin edged towards the door, deciding he should give the happy couple some time alone. But Arthur detected the movement and pulled back from Gwen and grabbed Merlin by the shoulder. The next thing Merlin knew he was caught up in a group hug as all three of them grinned at each other and simply basked in the joy of the moment.

Merlin decided to ignore how weird it was that he was being included in this moment. He just hugged them both – the woman who had been his first friend in Camelot and the man who had changed his life. It was so exciting to think that this was just the beginning of a family and that, despite being unrelated, he knew he was still a part of that family.

* * *

Merlin waited in the anteroom outside the throne room, listening to the crowd assembling. He didn't know how many times he had stood here with Arthur while waiting for him to enter for some ceremony or another in his honour. However, Merlin had never imagined he would one day be here for himself.

How did Arthur do this so easily? He was about to go out there and be the center of attention in a room full of friends and strangers, commoners and nobles, people who liked him and people who hated him. And he wasn't hidden under a cloak this time; they all knew exactly who he was and what he could do. And they all had opinions about him. Arthur had done this sort of thing every day of his life and Merlin had never imagined it as particularly challenging. It was only now that he was waiting to go in there himself that he strangely found himself wanting to simply stay hidden in this back room.

He kept readjusting his clothes. It felt so strange to be wearing an outfit where every piece of clothes was new. He had worn the same clothes for so long that he had stopped ever thinking about them. He was at the point where he adjusted his jacket or his neckerchief without conscious thought. But now that he was wearing something he had never worn before he was in the new position of never being sure if everything was still in place. He figured he would eventually get used to it but it would probably take a while. He had a whole set of new outfits that was more clothes than he had owned in his entire life. He was used to only having two sets of everyday clothes – one to wear while the other was being washed. Was he supposed to change clothes as often as Arthur did now? It was hard to imagine wearing something different every single day.

The door opened and Arthur came in.

"Ready, Merlin," he asked.

"I think so," said Merlin, checking that the silk scarf and the long, navy-blue coat he was wearing were still positioned ok.

"I came to give you this," Arthur said, holding out a sword with an intricate pattern on the hilt, inlaid with rubies. "I had it made for you."

"A sword?" Merlin asked, trying not to sound too incredulous.

"It's a ceremonial sword," Arthur said as though explaining something simple to a child. "It doesn't matter how useless a swordsman you are, since it's just there to look impressive."

Merlin forced himself not to roll his eyes and instead took the sword from Arthur with a smile. He put it in his belt and said, "Thanks."

Merlin didn't know what had gotten into Arthur lately. All of a sudden he had been giving Merlin new stuff practically every day. He had already presented Merlin with an entire new set of outfits, his own seal, a dagger, a gold-encrusted storage chest, a set of writing quills – and now a ceremonial sword? Merlin already didn't know how to respond to all of the other outlandishly lavish gifts he had been given, or even what to do with them all.

Arthur took a step back, put his hands on his hips and looked Merlin up and down, looking pleased at what he saw. Merlin felt a strange sense of role reversal. How many times had he done the exact same thing after he had dressed Arthur for some event or ceremony? It was suddenly striking Merlin how bizarre his life had turned out. He had been born in a hut and now he was being outfitted by a king? He was about to stand in front of a crowd dressed like some kind of noble and partake in this upper-class pageantry? He had come from literally nothing – he wasn't cut out for this kind of thing!

"You know," Arthur said, cutting through Merlin's spiralling thoughts, "those clothes almost hide the fact that you are an idiot."

Ok maybe being outfitted by a king wasn't so extravagant when that king was a moron.

"Whereas nothing you wear can hide how much you look like a fat toad," Merlin replied automatically.

"I am not fat!"

"At least you admit to looking like a toad," Merlin said, now grinning.

Arthur gave him a gentle punch in the shoulder, but he couldn't hide his own grin.

"Ow!" said Merlin, even though it didn't actually hurt. "I thought you would stop hitting me now that I'm not your servant anymore."

"I do not hit servants," said Arthur with exaggerated offense. "I merely exact a fitting punishment on anyone who dares insult their king."

"But I only said you look like a toad," Merlin said, feigning innocent confusion. "There was no insult because I only spoke the truth."

Arthur gave Merlin another friendly punch, no longer even trying to hide his grin, and then turned and opened the door to leave.

It was only as Arthur entered the throne room and made his way down the aisle, the assembled people standing in respect for the king, that Merlin realized how effectively Arthur had made him forget all of his nervousness.

"People of Camelot," Arthur said to the crowd, once he had reached the front of the room. "We are here today to witness the appointment of a new member of the High Council of Camelot. It has been nearly thirty years since this position has been filled, but now that magic is once again welcomed in Camelot, it is my pleasure and my honour to reinstate the title of Court Sorcerer. The man who will be taking this position has served me faithfully for over seven years and has demonstrated great loyalty to Camelot and dedication to protecting the people of this land. I speak of course of our great ally Merlin Emrys of Ealdor. For years, Merlin has humbly performed the duty of a servant while working in the shadows to defend Camelot, with no thought of personal reward or glory. His skills with magic are legendary and he has chosen to use them for the good of Camelot. He has been personally responsible for many of the kingdom's greatest victories and, without doubt, Camelot would not be standing were it not for Merlin. Merlin has loyally stayed by my side through the hardest of times and has demonstrated, time and again, a willingness to give up his life for my own. I personally, and on behalf of the kingdom, want to thank Merlin for his steadfast dedication and welcome him to come forward to accept his new appointment."

Arthur gestured towards the back of the room, which was Merlin's signal to enter. As Merlin walked down the aisle, he looked for familiar faces in the crowd. There were a lot of knights in red capes but he had no trouble at all finding his friends amongst them, mainly because Gwaine was holding his hand above the crowd and waving at him. His mother and Gaius were in the front row and looked like they could not be more proud of him. Gwen stood at the front behind Arthur and when Merlin caught her eyes she smiled and nodded slightly in an encouraging way.

Merlin stopped a few feet in front of Arthur.

"Merlin," Arthur said formally, loud enough for the whole room to hear. "Will you swear an oath of office?"

Merlin knelt on one knee in front of Arthur. He stared up into the eyes of his king and meant every word as he recited, "I, Merlin, do solemnly swear allegiance to the King and to Camelot. I swear to serve you, King Arthur, with all of my capabilities, whether by my life or death. I swear to faithfully perform the duties of my office, to protect and assist the people of Camelot, and in all things to be a true and honourable councillor."

Arthur smiled down at Merlin. There was no record of what oath a Court Sorcerer was meant to swear, since any documents recording such things had been destroyed in the purge, so Arthur had told Merlin to just write his own oath and swear to whatever he wanted to. He seemed pleased with the result as he spoke again, "I do hereby accept your oath. Arise, Merlin, Court Sorcerer of Camelot."

Merlin stood and turned to face the crowd. Everyone was applauding, but Merlin's eyes were drawn to his mother, whose hands were so busy wiping away tears in an attempt to pretend that she wasn't crying that she was barely able to bring them together to clap twice. Merlin suddenly felt wet pools in his own eyes and quickly started blinked rapidly, staring at the ceiling. He was not going to cry in front of everyone!

Merlin knew all too well how much his mother had sacrificed for him. From being scorned by the villagers for having a child out of wedlock, to being shunned by friends because of the lies she had to tell to keep his secret, to going hungry herself in order to feed him – it seemed that his mother's love for him had only ever brought her hardship. She had always told him that he was special and meant for great things, but Merlin was sure that, deep down, she had fully understood that his low birth and the deadly secret hanging over his head had left him with very little prospects in life. He was so glad to finally be able to say that he really had lived up to what she dreamed he could become and not let all her efforts raising him go to waste. Seven years ago he had set out to Camelot, hoping to make something of his life, despite the odds stacked against him, but never in his wildest dreams would he have guessed back then that his life would turn out like this.

Merlin had never felt so light-hearted and hopeful for the future. He no longer carried the worries that had been such a heavy burden for so many years. In fact, it wasn't until they were lifted that he realized how much they had weighed down on him – the fear that his friends would reject him if they found out his secret, that he would be forced to leave Camelot because he was breaking the laws, or that he would not be strong enough to protect Camelot alone. Now his friends all knew his secret and embraced that side of him; Arthur had legalized magic and Merlin knew that he could stay by his side forever; and protecting Camelot did not seem such a burden because he no longer felt that he was alone.

Merlin felt Arthur step forward to stand beside him and put his hand on his shoulder. Suddenly Merlin was able to blink back his tears and look forward again without risking crying. The physical reminder of Arthur's presence gave Merlin a strange sense of confidence. The troubles of the past were behind them now. There was no doubt that they would face many new challenges in the days ahead, but Merlin was not worried - not with Arthur here.

With Arthur as king, Merlin felt that the kingdom could not be in better hands. Honest, fair-minded, true-hearted Arthur – how often was a kingdom so lucky to have such a ruler? Arthur had only been king for a short time and already he had started building a kingdom where no person was denied respect, no matter their position in life, and Merlin could see that this was only the beginning. This was the start of the time that was spoken of in prophesies. The prophesies had been annoyingly vague, but they had always painted a hopeful picture of the days to come. Arthur would unite the lands of Albion and rule over the greatest kingdom the world had ever known. Merlin believed that with every fiber of his being. This was the beginning of a bright future and Merlin was glad to be a part of it. He knew that he would spend the rest of his life right where he was meant to be – at Arthur's side.

**Notes**

**And there it is – the end! I don't have plans for any more sequels. I hope you enjoyed my series!**

**Sorry it took so long to finish this one. Since writing Part 2, I got a job, bought a car, found an apartment, moved, bought and assembled all the furniture in my apartment, travelled – in short, I was a bit busy with life-related things. However I committed to writing this and I can't stand an unfinished story so – better late than never!**

**I don't know how this one ended up so long. It is more than twice the length of Part 2 and more than 3 times the length of Part 1. I didn't plan that. It just seemed to happen.**


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